Humans are a mesmerized species. We pick up a lot of impressions from our environment (Family, culture, etc) when we are kids. Lots of things become imprinted in us when we have no sense of discretion and they stay with us throughout our lives and we never get to reexamine them. In a way we can not examine them because they become a part of our identity.
It’s like having red glasses on and try to objectively find out what is the true color of the world. Not possible. Intellectual among us tend to research and study these childhood imprints. But they are ignorant to the fact that there is no such thing as objective inquiry as long as one has tainted glasses on. You may be reading an article that claims world is not made of red color but because you have the red glasses on the more you read the more you will be convinced otherwise. That is the plight of humanity!
I am stunned by the number of intelligent, smart, educated people who devote their entire intellectual life defending ideas and beliefs they were fed in their childhood. Ideas that they would have found ludicrous if they were presented to them in adulthood.
Although there are plenty among us that never become mature and never develop sense of discretion, it is shocking to me how the most intelligent people among us fall into these traps. We are vulnerable as a child. We are blank innocent sheets of paper and our parents and society gets to write what they wish on these blank pages. They were themselves blank pages as a child and so is the lingering legacy of ignorance in human history and the secret behind survival of myths, superstitions & religions!
Generation after generation we pass on the most bizarre and preposterous ideas and we never pause to question them. It’s all the curse of childhood. As a child we are perceptive but not discreet. The most intimate of these beliefs becomes a part of us so we never get to question them because they are a part of investigator not what’s being investigated.
There are millions of books racked up in the libraries of the world, some written by brightest of scholars that is devoted to defending such outlandish ideas.
As kids we were told of the most bizarre stories and we all accepted that. We had no other way. Everyone around us seemed to believe that. If it was so outrageous how could my mom, dad, rest of the family and neighbors believe in it. After all it was written in school books and our teacher told us about it.The truth is that most likely we got all these from people that were poorly educated and ignorant and they got these views of the world from their own parents and so on and so forth. You realize how grave of a problem the humanity faces.
You can trace back all the religious inspired violence and extremism to those innocent childhood years. We pick up these ideas as a child and we kill or get killed for them as adults and never get to question them. This is the tragedy of our species. We kill each other with the best of intentions and divine purity.
How often you hear two men of virtues both devoted to god fight each other in the name of their own gods.
There are at least half a dozen major religions in the world. Do their followers ever stop to think why their religion is any better than others? I am sure some do. But that is of no avail. They won’t find the answer just by asking the question. This is a problem that needs enlightenment as a solution. A metamorphosis if you wish.
What is missed on such devotees is the fact that they have more in common than it seems. Their views are based on individual childhood innocence and have roots in the down of history of mankind permeated with myths, ignorance and superstition nonetheless kept in hearts and defended with the best of intentions by a lot of otherwise good people.
How absurd would be to see bunch of kids in elementary school fight each other over religion? The holy warriors and crusaders are those same kids grown up with the beliefs they were taught in elementary school!!!
