I am not religious. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in God, or whatever variation of that word works for you. I tend to prefer the word ‘Universe’.
Today is Easter Sunday, when Jesus resurrected. Of course, none of us were there are the time, so we don’t truly know what occurred or even if it did occur. But common religious belief is that it happened, and religious or not, today most of us in Western Christian society celebrate that event. Usually with a family dinner and a visit from the Easter Bunny.
This morning I fashioned a humorous Easter message to send to my loved ones. Pre-warning, it may cause offence to some, so please don’t read on if you can’t enjoy me poking fun at religion…
“On this day, 2000-something years ago, Jesus emerged from a chocolate egg clutching two fun sized Crunchies, and declared “Let’s butcher the witches and gays” - and we all lived happily ever after. Now let’s eat Chocolate for breakfast and forget our sins. Happy Easter everyone”
Whilst it’s clearly in jest, as I’ve reflected upon it, it really does highlight a greater issue of society. And how the ego-driven Human used a religious event to control general society into acting in completely mindless ways for millennia, without questioning the motives of our religious ‘leaders’.
Ultimately, THE ROOT OF ALL RELIGION IS LOVE. So how did we go from love to hate so quickly? At what point in humanity did we categorically convince ourselves that we should brutally murder people who are different from us? And then get rewarded with a chocolate egg?
Even though, in today’s modern world (and I think largely due to the internet and social media), we are starting to question things more, it still remains a sad fact that religion is being used on mass to control and divide people.
And even for those who aren’t religious, we still somehow buy into it. Myself included, as I prepare an Easter Egg hunt for my daughters and even as I spend time writing this post or sending my loved ones silly Easter messages and memes. Commercialism and social pressures have me buying into a religious event. No different to Christmas. No different to burning witches at the stake. It’s so deeply engrained into our culture that it would be almost impossible to undo our religious conditioning.
So for today, whether you’re religious or not, maybe we can all agree to take a moment to remind ourselves of the true essence of all religion…
LOVE.
Happy love day everybody 💛
