What if there was a town, a city…no…an entire world, where everyone agreed. Not to say that everyone agreed with each other but…here, let me start over. What if there was such a thing as a perfect world? Has anyone ever sat down and really thought about what it would be like to live in a perfect world? When you think to yourself what your perfect world would be like, let me ask you this: how many people are in it? 5? 10? 30? 100? 500? 1000? For most people, they don’t see a whole lot of people, certainly not 7 billion. Of course, it’s nearly impossible for the brain to think of that many people at a time. Think about it, how many objects can you put in your mind’s eye? For me, it’s around 1000 before my brain starts hurting. Now whether this is a coincidence or not is beside the point. My point is that when people think of the human race, depending on who you talk to, the answer will range from “They’re the epitome of death itself and everything cruel in this world” to “They’re beautiful in their graciousness, kindness, and good will” or something like that. The point is, the human race has many different views on itself, and depending on who you talk to, it’s either the worst, or the best.
Back to my first question, what if there was such a thing as a perfect world? Could you even imagine such a thing? Fortunately, most people can; but again, they’re all different. Unfortunately, most of them involve nearly everything about that person. For instance, some people believe that those who don’t succeed in life should be taken care of and encouraged, whereas others believe they should rightfully deserve whatever comes there way, no matter how hard the hardship. Another example: some people believe doing good deeds should always result in good rewards, and bad deeds should result in bad rewards or punishment; whereas other people believe that it doesn’t matter what you do, good things should happen to everybody; and yet others believe that it doesn’t matter what comes out of it, good deeds should always be done. These questions and many others make up a person’s beliefs. These beliefs are what culminate every religion. Now, I know. This is a bold statement, especially for those strong in your faith. But before you turn away from ignorance of thought, hear me out. If I were to come up to you and say, “What happened, oh say, 1000 years ago?” how would you respond? You would probably tell me about some ancient civilization. If I were to ask you, “What happened 100 years ago?” you’d probably tell me about some advancement in the current era, or some downfall, or even some war. If I were to ask you, “What happened 10 years ago?” you’d probably tell me about something that happened in your life, or somebody else’s. If I were to ask, “What happened 1 year ago? 1 month ago? 1 day ago?” you’d probably tell me about something more specific about you or somebody else’s life. But let me ask you this, did any of that actually happen? Most people would say, “Of course it happened!” and when I ask for proof they show me evidence of those things happening. Whether that be a used plate, a dirty sneaker, a birthday card, an old article, or an ancient artifact, they would all say the same thing: this happened. But is that all we have? After physical objects, people would start to mention mental or emotional happenings, such as memories or emotions. But at some point, we can only go back so far before we can’t remember what happened mentally or emotionally. Whether it be through forgetfulness or just not being there. There isn’t a single person alive today that was alive when president George Washington was around. So how do we know it happened? Again, people point to evidence; but in the back of everybody’s mind, I know that they know that they don’t know…let me rephrase that: they know that no one can know what happened, not truly. We can assume all we want, but we all know that we can only assume. Let me repeat that, we can only assume what has happened in the past, we cannot ever know. With that being said, let’s go back to the subject of religion. If you’re smart, then you’ll know what I’m about to say, and before I say it, I just want to let you know: it hurts me to say this. I have been a strong in my religion and I have not backed down from it and to this day I will defend its authority. To some that puts me as a hypocrite, but I’ll get to that. We cannot know if the events recorded in any religious book are true, we can only assume. Now, did nothing recorded in a religious book happen? Maybe, we can’t be sure. Like I said, we can only assume. I’m going to use Christianity as a reference here because of two reasons: one, it’s popular; two, it’s the religion I know most about. I can’t know if there was ever a man like the described Jesus, just like I can’t be sure if there was ever a man like the described George Washington. The point is, once you put aside all of the authority figures in religion, what do you have? Beliefs. Morals. Ideals. Rules designed with everyone’s best interest. Let me give you an example. I was messaging a friend of mine who brought up this idea, she asked me “What is Christianity?” To which I started replying about Jesus and the gospel. Before I could finish my explanation, she cut me off saying, “No, not the people. I mean what does Christianity do?” She was clearly trying to make a point I was understanding. To clear my confusion she asked, “What are the seven deadly sins?” With the great memory I had I answered, “Lust, Wrath, Greed, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, and Envy” in no particular order. “So, wouldn’t you say that Christianity is meant to suppress these sins?” to which I agreed. But then she made an interesting point, “See, the seven deadly sins…aren’t sins. In a way, they are all good. With lust we can love people, with wrath we can get out our true feeling and feel better, greed so we can strive to have more, gluttony because we like to enjoy ourselves, pride so we can believe in ourselves, sloth so we can recharge and rethink, and envy so we can strive to do better.” I told her that although most if not all of that was true, we shouldn’t put ourselves in those temptations. She agreed saying, “You’re right, the seven deadly sins have to deal with one thing: desires. But let me ask you this, are desires bad?” I immediately didn’t reply…I didn’t know what to say. On one hand, they were, but they also weren’t. She continued, “We all have desires don’t we, desire to be better, more powerful, more liked, we all have it in us. Have you heard of Satanism?” Of course I had, it was a cult that worshipped the devil, or so I told her. She replied, “But take the authority out again and what do you have? Desires. See, in the end, Christianity is meant to suppress desires and Satanism is meant to enrich those desires. In reality, we need both. Not meaning that we need Christianity and Satanism, but we need to find a balance between fulfilling our desires, and suppressing them.” That’s where it struck home with me. The point is, religion was made with the idea that everyone should believe and act the same way, and therefore, everybody has the best and same interest. And that’s the key. Let me ask you something: What if everybody had the good intention? The same idea? The same beliefs? What if everybody in the whole world all believed in the same things and therefore, acted accordingly? Do you think there would be peace? Would it be a utopia? Well…yes and no. See, the key here is that if we were to do that, we need to find a set of rules that are perfect, that are the truth, ones that we should follow. But unfortunately, that’s not possible. Or at least, I can think of it. I’m not sure anyone can. Because with every right in the world, there is a wrong. With every good, there is an evil. So if everyone believed in the same thing, the few problems with it would stand out like a sore thumb, eventually crumbling the human race as we know it. So…could there possibly be a utopia? In my eyes, not exactly. There is good, and there is evil; there is right, and there is wrong. So in the end, you cannot have only good, but you cannot have only bad. Just like you cannot have light without dark. You cannot have the light if there is no dark, and you cannot be the good if there is no evil. My view of a perfect world? That’s a trick question… There is no such thing as utopia. |
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