Friday, January 19, 2018

Pursuit of Happiness: The Right to Religion

To society,

When it comes to man's happiness, I previously showed that love is man's perfection and therefore key to obtaining happiness. Now, I intend to explain one of the fundamental rights pertaining to that love; the right that early American settlers valued dearly: the freedom of religion.

Simply speaking, religion is about rendering what is due to God*. The focus is not on us, but on God. Religion falls under the realm of Justice, but in doing so, we show our love to God.

Of course, there are many religions and it can be difficult to say which is true. However, this is not because of religion itself, but rather it's relationship with faith, philosophy, and morality.

Faith and religion are not the same, but they are very much connected. Faith gives us premises to build our logic. Most of our knowledge and ideas are based upon faith. We exercise this in science when we trust that prior scientists did everything correctly. No one has time to prove everything that others have proven before, otherwise we would make no progress. We also have faith in our own experiences, which in turn affect our philosophy.

Philosophy is the way we view how the universe works. If we say science is how things are, philosophy is the logic for why. Religion and philosophy play a give and take game as philosophy influences religion, and faith gives premises for philosophy. Morality then is applying that knowledge to how we should act, of which religion is part.

The reach of morality is largely dependent upon the scope of faith and philosophy. For example, Christianity in general has "love your neighbor as yourself" as it's second greatest commandment. It also heavily teaches that God associates himself with each individual person. As a result of this world view, it has a huge stake in preaching how we should treat others. At the same time, you can see how each denomination differs in how it treats God based off their differing philosophies.

Now, since it is difficult to judge which religion as they are matters of faith, it is important to recognize them for what they are. By understanding that religion is how we are to give back to the Divinity, we can see why it's important to be free from political powers. History and modern times are filled with persecutions by politicians who see religion as an obstacle to their selfish ambitions. While I will not admit all religions are good, there is good in the nature of giving back as it is our nature to love.

With love,
N. D. Moharo

* for the definition of religion, I took from the catechism of one of the world's largest religions. If Catholicism cannot have a say in what religion is, then I don't know who can. However, I think it's fair to say that when we say religion today, we mean the whole package of faith, philosophy, and morality.

P.s. it can be an act of love to allow people to practice their religion. Even if we oppose a religion, we must make sure there is no hatred and no desire to harm anyone, otherwise we are more likely to be the agents of evil

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