Words are weird, just in that statement alone there lives a contradiction to one of the age old rhyming rules of English; ‘I’ before e except after ‘c’. However, as we see with the word “weird” that doesn’t always happen. We receive these rules yet they are continuously broken. Did you catch that one? The word receive is yet another contradiction within the English language where the “e” comes before the “i” even after following the letter c. So why do certain rules commonly get referenced even though they seem to contradict themselves a majority of the time? The same could be asked about certain beliefs and ideas that individuals hold.

One particular real world instance that comes to mind is when people attempt to use religion in order to condemn others. All too often the bible is referenced when people are searching for some reason other than their personal uncomfortableness for condemning the acts of same sex couples. I can’t count the number of times I have seen the letters and numbers Leviticus 18:22 or Lev. 20:13 scrawled in sharpie on a piece of cardboard. These are, of course, the particular parts of the bible that forbid men from lying with other men as they would with women. However there are a few parts of Leviticus that people choose to glance over that would cause them to reconsider their own behaviors rather than ordering others around. These are the parts of Leviticus you never seen scrawled in sharpie on a piece of cardboard:

These are just seven instances where the Bible gives advice that is often overlooked. Basically if you eat pork, don’t wear a veil, commit any kind of revenge, mix seeds, textiles or animals, have tattoos, treat people from foreign countries poorly and/or don’t take two turtles or pigeons to the priest following your time of the month, you’re not following the instructions very closely. The excuse for ignoring these rules is that times have changed; it’s unrealistic to believe that a book written thousands of years ago should guide modern humans’ behaviors, right? So if this is the case, then why is there such a focus on one particular rule that governs the way others should live?

This all goes back to personal ideals, beliefs and feelings. People look for excuses to hold their bigoted beliefs and the biggest excuse one can use is GOD. The line of thought more or less goes something like this: “There’s an omnipotent being in the sky who doesn’t like what you’re doing even more than I don’t like it, so I will attempt to save you from eternal damnation by insisting you’ve got it wrong.” It is the ideals that are taught to children early on that influence how they treat others later in life. If children are provided a false sense of superiority then it leads to particular groups of people maintaining power over others.

I am not trying to knock religion. I think it serves an important purpose in helping people on their paths to personal enlightenment and spirituality but when religion is being used as a means to continue the spread of hate and hypocrisy then it is being misused. Religion is especially relative, the first time I realized this is when I was a child in Sunday school discussing other religions and regions. I thought to myself that if I had been born in a different country I would probably have a completely different way of worshipping. It is surprising to me that there are still some adults who don’t comprehend this concept of subjectivity.

Anywhere you go, culture creates a different environment for people to live in but ideas such as compassion, love, understanding and acceptance can permeate across all boarders and be incorporated into all lifestyles. These things are learned through continuous education and an open dialogue amongst individuals. The concept of morality should not be constructed from an ancient set of texts, it needs to be a collaboration of modern minds thinking about the future of humanity.