It's your choice

I know that I shouldn't start a rant with an apology but i'm going to anyways - sorry, but i found my soapbox.The time has come for humanity to make a choice. Do we cherish peace and freedom more than our various institutions of religion? Is our natural state one of civility; one in which we freely choose to honor and respect our neighbors; a state of being in which curiosity, tolerance, forgiveness, and belief are able to coexist? Or, is the nature of humanity one in which we are eternally lost in semi-darkness, groping for answers in the dim light cast off by flickering flames, and finding truth in the dancing and shifting shadows that play across the walls and floors of the cave in which we refuse to leave? Truths of perception whose veracity is proclaimed as self-evident in the amount of proselytizing and violence it inspires amongst humanity? Is this all we are?

Surely we can point to theological origins to our civilizations; yet, just as assuredly, we can see where the demands of these dogmas permit no room for challengers. Thus, a growing society comes into contact with a foreign theology with the inevitable: warfare to establish theocratic supremacy. There is not room for two cosmic truths in the global theocratic empire. So began the struggle of civilization to escape the constraints of theocracy. A struggle that has brought us through monarchies, oligarchies, and autocracies to the formation of free and democratic representative governments. How many lives were lost along this cruel and difficult path? How many brave deeds were accomplished to push us just one centimeter closer to a free humanity? Are these people, these deeds, destined to crumble and be rewritten by religious zealots as the acts of heretics hell bent on leading humanity astray? This is the challenge we face today.

We, the free-thinkers of humanity, are at a crossroads and we must choose our path correctly for if we set our sails with the winds of popular political trends we will quickly glide away from all that we cherish and respect. Sailing will begin smoothly - less worries, less fear, and less confusion. But as we progress into open waters we will find ourselves caught up in violent storms and battling turbulent currents that will tear us apart, render our vessels useless, and set us adrift without hope. Without hope, for we will be not in uncharted waters, but back in the familiar wastelands dominated by divine laws complete with intolerance, ludicrous heirarchies, and cruel punishments. Knowledge, curiosity, and art will be stymied; free expression will become a thing of the past. Is this our destiny?

I believe that the theocratic state is neither human nature nor human destiny. I believe that humans are inquisitive, abstract thinkers capable of unraveling the mysteries of the universe. We are capable of determining our own future. This is the challenge. And, surely, if there is a God this was its intention: one species living in peace and using the most magnificent creation in the entire known universe to chart a course that ensures the survival of humanity: the human brain. Yes, now is the time to choose: enlightenment or sliding back to the beginnings. Do not wait until violence or capitulation are your only choices. Think! Be Aware of the political and religious forces at work in the world around you! Do not allow a world of violence and intolerance to be the legacy we leave to our children, the future of humanity.