Faith can also be beautiful

It's always similar things that push me to go into defensive mode about my faith. Also today. A simple tweet about how  nasty and  idiot faith hurts me, because I think faith can also be beautiful.

I only know Wim from Twitter and I don't want to judge his statement at all. I can only speculate as to why he made this statement, but that doesn't matter. I am only using it as an example of tweets that I regularly see and which have as a common thread how negative people are (in general) towards faith and religion.

First and foremost, I want to say that I understand why people have such feelings towards (organized) religion. Religion is something very fundamental and is purely human. It can show the best in a person, but also the worst. Unfortunately, the community and the media mainly focus on the bad.

Every religion has its crazy and dark moments

And let's call a cat a cat. There have the  Islamic lunatics (yes, those are the terms I use for those who abuse their own religion for wrong purposes). And again to be clear: I am not saying that every Muslim is crazy or that Islam as a whole is a bad religion.

Islam has no patent on religion  wickedness. Most religions have their dark days, led by their own madmen. Most examples are found in the religions that are the largest in number or oldest in their history. Just look at Christianity in general. The Crusades are not the moments I would like to use to show how beautiful Christianity is, on the contrary. But small groups also have their weak-minded moments. Charles Manson who died today is a great example of what I mean.

I can safely imagine that the reactions this week stem from what happened in Genk. A Muslim lecture in Genk provokes many angry reactions. It is indeed unthinkable in our culture to say that music is sinful, visiting cafes is the devil and drinking alcohol is completely wrong. Even government members call it shocking.

The shocking thing is that there are elements that indicate that it does not stop at these matters. Because in itself: so what if someone doesn't want to listen to music, stays away from cafes and doesn't want to drink alcohol. You won't hurt anyone with that. Agreed, it is far from our Western world, but that in itself is not wrong. The problem lies when this path is followed further and one eventually comes to the conclusion that anyone who does not follow these guidelines is wrong and should  adjusted or else  eliminated become. That is dangerous, without a doubt.

But to immediately conclude that religion is a crime against humanity is more than a few bridges further. Too far, even, if you ask me. Just because a certain view of life is far removed from yours does not mean it is wrong. I don't drink alcohol either. Nothing strange in itself. A strange thing happens to my conversation partners when they discover the reason I don't drink alcohol. At first it is assumed that I pay attention to my health. If that were the case: case closed and congratulations (en  “I wish I could do it too”).

However, if I tell you that I... do not drink alcohol due to religious beliefs, then at best only the eyebrows will rise a little. However, the facial expressions betray disbelief. One only understands a reason if that reason can also have meaning in one's own world. However, Western Europe has now been separated from close contact with religion for several generations and the understanding of this has disappeared.

Mutual intolerance is a great danger

The great danger lies when lost understanding also leads to intolerance. When only one's own standards are considered good and there is no room to consider other standards as possibly acceptable. It is the lack of that space of experience that is evident from tweets such as the example at the top of this text.

And I think that is dangerous. Because it is intolerance that makes our hair stand on end about the Muslim lecture in Genk. But it is also – and don't be alarmed by my harsh words – the same intolerance that makes the path already described after that lecture so dangerous. When mutual intolerance leads to the point where it becomes unthinkable to live with it. The point at which one decides that the intolerant can no longer be tolerated and must therefore be eliminated.

What I would therefore like to warn against is that the aversion to religion that exists as a mirror effect of the aversion to the intolerance of the other side, could lead to becoming equally intolerant. A society with mutual intolerance leads to painful conflicts. One-sided intolerance is the basis of painful moments in our history such as the Holocaust. So just ask yourself how deep mutual intolerance goes.

Faith can also be beautiful

While faith can also be beautiful. I don't want to make any exclusives. I am just advocating tolerance here, for those who are different. I don't want to be the believer who says “my church, the only church.” Just as every faith has its crazy ones, every faith also has its beautiful sides, provided that it is built on (charity) love and tolerance.

I personally do not enter into a theological discussion about whether or not certain religions are built on those principles. This only fuels intolerance and hatred. You find good and bad people everywhere. You don't have to be religious to be good. Or to be bad, for that matter.

In the 43 years that I have been here on earth, I have spent more than half of my life in disbelief. After that, I was more or less religious for quite some time, and for the last six years I was convinced. So I pretend to call myself somewhat of an expert in this area, precisely because I have experiences on all sides of the spectrum. This ensures that I have enormous tolerance for all points of view, because I have insight and understanding of what they stand for.

That's why I can't help responding to such tweets. Yes, I understand why someone would write that. Out of incomprehension, out  unknown is unloved, out of fear… At such moments I respond, hoping to create understanding. To nuance black and white thinking with a multiple of fifty shades of gray. Often from personal testimonies, such as this text.

Precisely because I have moved on the spectrum from atheist to believer, I see the difference in my life. I can only declare that my faith has made me a better person. That I have become happier, more at peace with myself and with the world around me, even though that world is frightening, often because of people who are also religious, in their own way, which sometimes goes off the rails.

My way of believing teaches me to focus on the good. It teaches me not to give in to evil. It teaches me that I have the free choice to look at things the way I want. I can watch images and hear testimonies from people who experienced the attack at Brussels Airport far too closely. It is then my choice whether I focus on that  Islamic lunatics with their explosives and anger and fear to consume me, or whether I rather look endearingly at the image of that Muslim woman who, less than a minute after the explosions, walks up to one of the victims and holds his hand the entire time to make him feel that he is not alone.

Death to all piano players

We should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. If faith is capable of one thing, it is precisely the fact that it ensures that the true self emerges. For many people it will be something pure and good, for others it will be something distorted and bad. If religion is one thing, then it is a mirror of who we really are.

I often wonder if this is where the fear of those who do not believe lies. Are they afraid to look in that mirror and discover themselves? Is that the cause of the bigotry I mentioned? An intolerance that spreads not only among believers, but sometimes even more strongly among unbelievers.

Some nice articles have recently been published that I highly recommend. Take this one for example Trouw.nl, from which I quote the following beautiful piece:

One of the great mysteries is why so many fervent atheists suffer from a missionary urge that they do not tolerate in Christians: the zeal with which the atheist dogma is spread among people and nations, that grim message of literally Nothing: there is Nothing, there may be Nothing and there will be Nothing. Breathtaking.

It is one thing not to believe in a god. There are also plenty of people who cannot play the piano. But it becomes ridiculous if this flaw is immediately transformed into a virtue, what is called a revelation.

Everyone who plays the piano is crazy, and everyone who spends time mastering that art is wasting their time. Only when no one plays the piano anymore will you see how good and beneficial things will be. All pianists out of the world, as well as piano tuners and builders.

Wonderful piece to think about. Death to all piano players! Fortunately, it is humorous and I hope that the smile can lead to deeper thinking about why atheists can be just as proselytizing as religious missionaries…

If I have to make a plea here, it is one for more tolerance. To accept that faith can also be beautiful. A challenge to put on the believer's glasses for at least a moment and see what he or she sees. An invitation to perhaps see a glimpse of God through those glasses, who knows?