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There are many things that happen in life that makes us question how someone can be capable of such things. Whether it be good things or bad things we often find some behavior shocking and surprising and sometimes we go into denial about it.

“How can someone who loves his wife and children so much just leave?”

“How can someone so closely tied with the clergy do that to a child?”

“How can such a religious woman kill without question?”

“Why do we fight wars when peace has better end results?”

“Why do I even bother believing in anything?”

The questions can be simple in nature and even range into the complex and psychologically impossible, but there is a reason behind so much, but often the reasons are not any better than the actions in question. When a person murders for example, they are able to do it because they have justified it in their head that it is the right thing to do. It ranges from simply eliminating that person or thing from life for temporary comfort (Killing an annoying animal or person without thinking about ratifications) or eliminating a person or animal for long-term comfort (Killing something because the person has decided the world would be better without said person or animal and has a list of reasons why). In all cases the person, no matter from what walk of life they come from, has his/her reasons and nothing and change his/her mind. Sometimes after the fact people feel guilty but they were not even thinking about that at the time. Prime example. A coworker of mine has an abusive mother figure who is also Bi Polar and denies that she is in fact unstable and abusive. The mother refuses to clean anything, ever her own messes, and blames the rest of the family for rotten food and no clean clothing. Now in order to keep myself from sounding like a sexist pig I will tell you about the rest of the family. The father works almost 60 hours a week and is rarely home, there is a little brother who is mimicking what the mother does, and finally there is my co-worker who is still just a child-himself. This coworker wants to kill his mother, not jokingly, but actually kill his mother. There is no “I’ll miss her” or “I want to see her get treatment and help” there is only the want of her death on his mind. He has even thought out how the rest of his life and the life of his father and brother will be like when the mother is gone. The life he describes sounds great, to a point. When asked about how his father would feel the coworker simply shrugs his shoulders and replies stating that his father would get over it quickly and move on with life. He doesn’t know how his family would react to his action, nor does he care about jail time or any repercussions, in fact he denies there will be any on the sole fact that “The Police know my mom and would agree that it had to be done.”

Hs this coworker killed his mother? No. Why hasn’t he done so if he justified it in his mind? His mother is his ride to work and to where ever he needs to go. If he killed her before he got his license and car he would be penniless and without rides anywhere. Sounds like he is a coward don’t it? On paper it seems as though the kid is all talk and no bite, but would anyone want to take that chance? The reason so many people do commit murder and are not all talk is because they have nothing holding them back. Murder is an easy solution; if someone commits rape or a sexual crime just kill them and no more problems. Someone steals something, well, just kill him or her and nothing will be stolen. Someone is harassing you at school or work? Kill them. It makes life easier. See how easy it sounds? It gives direct results and eliminates the problem from your life permanently. Now for the reasons why we all know murder is wrong. The legal system and the family and friends of the victim. No matter what, there are repercussions to our actions, either with jail time, the death penalty, or even being forced to pay funeral dues, there is a price to pay for any action. And if you commit murder your life has just become more vile and horrible than you could ever imagine. Jail sucks.

Moving on.

If murder is simply justifying actions than can the same be said about crimes of a sexual nature or even exploitation of religion and beliefs? Yes, yes it can. Back in the early years of the Church for example the religious leaders thought of themselves and closer to God than the simple folk and could there for do whatever they wanted. They discovered people would sell all their possessions for a chance for instant salvation so the old leaders exploited this. There were never thinking that the people could one day get wise to the scam and revolt, they just were thinking that their lives were going so well thanks to the church why bother to think of anything else. Now not all the religious leaders felt this way, but we never read about them do we? Ask anyone about religious exploitation and see if they recall any people who didn’t? Even in present day. You will get a majority of answers that have negative tones and very few good tones. Now surprisingly, a fact most people miss, those negative answers will generally be the exact same events just stated differently, while the positive answers will mostly be completely different events entirely. As the church continued to grow there was still exploitation but it came from power and greed rather than the church itself. The people involved gained so much power and influence that they felt that God hand picked them to be this way and they would do whatever they could to keep their status. Some even convinced themselves that they were accustomed to this lifestyle and they would not be able to survive outside it for long.

Now let’s skip ahead to present day shall we? Religious exploitation comes from mental justification. “I can do anything because God will forgive me.” Or “If I pay enough in the offering God will let me into heaven regardless.” Or even “It must be God’s will I feel this way and I need to keep feeling this way.” It is all about justification. Why do people cheat on their significant others? Well either feel they are not getting what they need from their significant other or they are just greedy and can’t keep it in their pants. If has very little to do with background, however, background can help a person fight off these urges. Say for example a guy is sexually ready but a girl is not. They date for many years and the guy’s urges are not satisfied. It changes from simply wanting to sleep with his significant other to simply wanting sex. Now based on how the guy was raised he might do several things. He might cheat in order to quell his urges, he might dump his girlfriend to find another who will quell his urges, or he might actually be decent and respect her wishes and wait until she is ready. Background, but also the desire to make the problem go away can affect everything. I myself waited until marriage for sex, even when the possibility to do otherwise arose, but that is because of how I was raised and my views on sex and relationships. Now it’s not just guys who have those choices, girls have them too, just so we are clear, but the point is not gender but how someone justifies actions in their mind. This same formula works for anything involving the church and right or wrong choices. When a religious group kills in the name of God or their God it is because they have distanced themselves so far from their enemies that the enemy no longer seems human. And according to us humans, God doesn’t preach to monsters. Now to people not involved with the religious group attacking, but is just an observer, our own morals kick in and create the question of “How could anyone who is religious do this?” Well simple, they distanced themselves and it became good. How can you be killing your fellow man when the enemy is not a man but a demon? Well that’s ok then. Demons don’t have families or friends; they are just evil that needs to be destroyed. Right?

It’s scary sometimes when you think about it. How simple it is to distance yourself from everything, but that is the curse of free will. What makes the critical decision in your mind has to be your background and your moral standing. Faith begins it, but it is your own personal choice that defines your future actions. When you seem something that you would never do, instead of questioning it, try to figure out what that person or persons did to make that action all right in their mind. It doesn’t excuse them from the action, not at all, but it does help you cope with your own decisions. Religion can often be a title someone has taken upon themselves to either fit in or to find immediate results but it can also be a door opening experience to many others. However just because someone is religious does not mean they are pure in that religion. Any person can be a minister if they choose but they can also choose to abuse that role if they so please. It isn’t the religion that caused them to fall, but perhaps the lack of focus on such teachings that caused them to fall. Or even perhaps their lack of resolve to ignore the temptations and focus on things that could make their life happy. It is the person not the religion that makes the choices.

Many religions sound the same, because the general principles are the same. All religions have a golden rule; all have a set of rules (like the ten commandments) that tell people what is morale and what is not, many have rules for forgiveness and especially rules for not being judgmental. But above all religions have a focus on everyone being a beacon for their cause and for being a teacher. When you see someone you respect or someone you feel is a representative of that religion do something horrible sometimes makes you question why he or she did it and even the strength of the religion itself. Do not let the actions of one person make you question what you believe. Your personal journey is not dictated by what others do, unless you let it be. That religious leader fell, well learn from his/her mistakes and don’t let yourself fall the same way. Be a torch for your beliefs and don’t let anyone step on them. Live a good and just life and stop focusing on the bad, but actually scrap away that bad and see the good all around you. Life can be like a pair of dirty glasses sometimes, you often can’t see everything when there are smudges and dirt in the way and life looks bad and often bad things happen when you walk around, but take time to clean off the glasses and then you can see it all. You can avoid the bad things and then notice the good all around without question. This is the purpose of religion I feel. My beliefs are a combination of many religions and experiences and through them I have discovered the world is not a s**t hole but in fact it is a wondrous place filled with good people, good souls, and even good food. I have no fear of being tempted to justify my sinister actions because I know better than to do them. I know murder is wrong no matter what and I know I love my wife more than any woman in the world. The question that remains is this.

What do you believe?