Imagine – Part I
Andrew and his group of friends had long ago concluded that religion was at the root of the majority of the difficulties the world was facing at present. Not only that, but they believed that this rift in mankind has been causing problems for thousands of years. Their anthem was the John Lennon song, Imagine.
Imagine there’s no heaven,
It’s easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today…
Imagine there’s no countries,
It isn’t hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace…
Imagine no possessions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of men,
imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…
You may say I’m a dreamer,
but I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you’ll join us,
And the world will live as one..
Now there was one amongst them, Adam, who was in total disagreement with the rest. He was constantly trying to convince the group that they were making a grievous error. The only reason he remained their friend was his goodness. He never really argued his point, rather he engaged his friends in discussion. Furthermore, he was just a great guy, always going out of his way to do all he could to benefit others.
Adam’s reasoning went something like this. He did not believe that the lyrics of the song had any true foundation in reality. He agreed with his friends that they were correct in their view of world history, that fractions in religious belief’s have caused many catastrophes in the past and present. But he did not fault the religions themselves for this situation.
Rather, he blamed man’s use of their various faiths. At the root of all the major religions, he said, was a belief in the goodness of God. Furthermore, at the core of these different religions was God’s will that man treat their fellows with kindness and love.
For a reason that he said he would rather not discuss in detail, but hinted that free choice was it’s root, God had created man with both a good and an evil inclination. And unless an individual made a full hearted attempt to align their will with that of the Almighty, regardless of how well intentioned this person might be, the evil inclination would, in the end, prevail.
To prove his point, he decided to conduct an experiment, conditioned upon the acceptance by the group as a whole.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment