Are you tired of the same arguments going around in circles on social media? How about the judgment and hatefulness being spewed in the name of religion or creed? It seems like no matter what your belief system is, it’s lost its way.
What is belief system anyway? Merriam Webster defines it as: a system of religious beliefs. But belief system doesn’t just refer to religion. It can also refer to political beliefs, or any system of thought that you hold to be true.
So how did we get to a place where people are so quick to judge and condemn others who don’t share their same beliefs? It seems like our belief systems have been replaced by shallow rules and doctrines. Ritual has replaced understanding. Practicers follow the steps like a first time home owner installing a toilet. Following a how to guide with blind faith. Not understanding how the parts work.
And what about love? Where has that gone? It seems like we’ve replaced love with judgment and hate. We need more love and less judgment of others!
Let’s take a step back and try to understand why we’ve gotten to this place. Maybe if we can understand where we went wrong, we can start to fix things.
One of the problems is that we’ve forgotten how to communicate with each other. We’ve replaced meaningful dialogue with angry debates. We’ve stopped listening to each other and started shouting our opinions at each other.
Another problem is that we’ve stopped questioning. We’ve stopped looking at the evidence and thinking for ourselves. We’ve replaced critical thinking with dogma and blind faith.
And finally, we’ve lost our sense of compassion. We’ve stopped caring about each other and started judging and condemning.
So what can we do to fix things?
We need to start by communicating with each other. We need to listen to each other and try to understand each other. We need to think for ourselves and question what we believe. And finally, we need to start caring about each other again.