Tuesday, September 22, 2009

21.9.09 Episode 1: International Day of Peace, His story and mine

.
.

21st of September, The International Day of Peace, has come a long way till today.

In the year 1981, the UN General Assembly declared, in a resolution sponsored by Costa Rica, that the third Tuesday of September every year as the International Day of Peace devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace.

The holiday was celebrated, albeit not in a global scale, the UN itself seemed reluctant to push the idea of a day of peace where arms shall be put aside and peoples are allowed to think for themselves. The idea grew cold, peoples were saying," A day of peace and ceasefire will never happen on earth."

Until this man came into the picture.



Meet Jeremy Gilley, born English, previously an actor. He was the founder of the charity One Peace Day that started this global tsunami.

Jeremy Gilley has spent the last ten years promoting the idea of peace, non-stop. He was the one who got the United Nations General Assembly to put forward a resolution declaring the 21st of September as the official International day of Peace after almost two years of meeting peoples and writing letters and so on. Why on the 21st of September? Well, first of all, the original Peace Day was in September, and for the number 21, it is Jeremy's grandfather's favourite number.

His story is well documented during the last ten years, for he wanted the world to see how by pushing this one day alone, can change the world.

I've posted the video below, uploaded by the One Peace Day foundation. To be honest, of all the documentaries I've seen, this is really the first one that got me feeling touched. So please, I know the video is long(1 hour 20 minutes), but it'll worth every single minute and I'm sure by the end of the video you'll feel that you're contribution to the earth is just so tiny all this while.



or

The link to YouTube here!

Alright, that's his story. So what of me with the world's peacefulness? Do I care?

As a matter of fact I do, but not in the same way as Jeremy, though we still have the common vision in the end, that is to have a world where conflicts are non-existence.



To start with, I am a secular humanist.


Here's the logo :P


What is a secular humanist?

"A secular humanist is an atheist."
"A secular humanist is a scientific person."
"A secular humanist is an antagonist to religion."

The truth is, all three statements above are true, though not 100%, and the third statement is a bit exaggerated.

The real definition of Secular Humanism is:
Secular humanism is a humanist philosophy that espouses reason, ethics, and justice, and specifically rejects the supernatural and the spiritual as the basis of moral reflection and decision-making. Like other types of humanism, secular humanism is a life stance that focuses on the way human beings can lead good, happy and functional lives.



So what does this have to do with world peace you asked?

Give it a guess? It's quite easy...

In my eyes, and eyes of probably all secular humanist in the world, religious extremes has been the very root of most conflicts in the world, and I don't even have to show the prove.

Pick up a newspaper, flip through the pages. Wars are on-going in this world, and I'm very sure that at least one of them, when you dig deeper into the origin of the conflict, you'll find that the cause itself was religion, whether it is a difference of opinion, or justifying what's right in the name of God.

Tell me, what's the reasoning in that? Is it right to kill, as long as God told you to? Even if it makes the world a better place?

That's what the hijackers of the September 11 attacks thought. I'm sure their last words were probably "For Allah!"

But no, killing will never make this world a better place. Not even if God said so.



Now of course you will not be convinced that this world will be better without religion. I am somewhat on the sceptical side too. But think about it, religious extremists has been contributing to the deaths all around the world. In the Middle-East, peoples had been killing, and they said God asked them to do so. Surprised? Of course not! *Points at Al-Qaeda and their holy jihad*

Killing in the name of god is not uncommon. I've heard of peoples being stoned to death in the Arabian countries, because she committed adultery (Yes, it's a sad thing this happens to women). I've seen news of peoples having their hands cut off and then bled to death because they were caught stealing. There was even one doctor in the U.S. that was murdered because the doctor practices abortion for pregnant women. All these are the perfectly right thing to do, in a religious context.

*I hope so far you will see that I'm not demonizing religion, I'm just pointing out the facts others had brought up.*



Of course, non-religious peoples have their fair share of killings too. And this has been brought up all too often in debates and arguments. But... Given they really wanted to kill, can religion stop them? I'm sure that's a no. If they wanted to kill, they'll do it, it doesn't really matter God allowed them or not. Take for instance the psychopathic person A has a murderous intention towards this another person. Whether or not person A is religious, he would have committed the murder anyway and would not feel a thing about it.

These peoples are genuinely bad or evil to start with, they are a group of outcasts with twisted mind. Without religion, a bad person doing bad things will only be a bad person. For a good person doing bad things and still be known as a good person, it takes religion.

One can find such truth in the examples above. Peoples that did those things they claim are allowed by God are genuinely, with no doubt, good and sincere at heart. But somehow they are clouded by misleading interpretations of their religious view and went on to kill, for the sake of justice. They truly believed that what they did was right, and mandated by God.

I don't blame them, but to define justice without rationality but with blind faith is just absurd.



So you see, I'm not saying religion is not a good thing. Whether the world will be a better place without religion, I can't say. But what I dare say is that, the world will be a more peaceful place if we are secular humanist.

It's not hard to be one. By observing this golden rule, you are already one - " Treat others with the same consideration as you would have them treat you."

There you go, one rule, and the world will be a more peaceful place to be. You don't need religion to teach that. And, just in case, this moral rule has been around for years even before religion came into existence, and please don't argue with me that God gave that golden rule. :(

We can see monkeys, apes, even birds observing the same golden rule, so why can't all humans do the same thing?

If we all understand other peoples' point of view, if we all think "how would I feel if they do this to me too?" before committing anything, if we all just practice this one golden rule. The world will forever be free of conflict, be it religious or not. Don't you just agree?



Phew... All my opinions... To conclude this, I'm just going to say:

  • The world will be a more peaceful place if we are secular humanist.
  • The world will be a more peaceful place if there are no religion.
  • The world might or might not be a better place if there are no religion.


Hmm... Okay... I'm sure I've pretty much offended everyone with deep religious faith that have read this post. Well to you, I'm sorry. I'm not saying religion is poisoning the world, I'm just saying if we all can put humanity before religion, the world will be the safer place to be. Practicing religion is not wrong, in fact it can bring comfort to the heart and soul. But to practice it and put harm on the others is utterly unacceptable, for all humans are equal, you have no right to take their lifes.



So... Think about it, is religion really worth all these bloodshed?


===================================================================


Post inspired by:
(International Day of Peace) Jeremy Gilley.
(Secular Humanism) Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

Special Thanks to my very infectious friend, Yeow Minyi, who is ever so dedicated to making the world a better place. And always end up doing funny-funny nonsense  :P Joking lar...
Posted by at
Labels: ,

1 comment:

Esmond Sit Bo Sheng said...

I'd say religion divides us. But still I choose to believe the existence of a God. So yeah, who needs religion to believe in God. =P

September 25, 2009 at 9:55 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)