a reply to:
Metallicus
That's not my goal at all!
You paint me as some monster and put words in my mouth. Of course people should be allowed to be who they want to be.
That's a fundamental right of humanity.
My goal is not to create cookie-cutter pod-people. My dream is to create a group that does no harm, one of entirely pacifistic nature, that provides
comprehensive and meaningful aide at a community level. People should be allowed to practice what ever religion they want, but there's practicing
one's religion, and then there's just practicing your religion to the point where it antagonizes others.
And I do believe in a higher power. One that we are all part of, a grand cosmic vision of such utter magnitude and radiance it can hardly be
described.
I have no problem with people believing in Jehovah, Yahweh, Father Divine, Christ, Vishnu, Buddha, and so on.
It's just when they start to ignore the realities of the physical world, the suffering of the physical world, the needless and preventable horrors of
the physical world, that disturbs me.
But in my vision, would these people be persecuted? I would rather die. It would go against everything my principles have ever stood for.
Ultimately, I find the belief in a heaven to be counterproductive to creating a better existence in the here and now, in the physical world. I believe
in reincarnation, yes, but that's merely because it makes sense to me. I have.. flashbacks.. nightmares.. dreams of being someone else. Living as
someone else. Dying as someone else. If I told you what I interpreted those dreams as being, you'd call me crazy, and that would be your right as an
equal.
In my vision, there would be no barriers that divide us.
I'd like to share a quote from a poem, Mending Wall.
"Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,"