Ok, so I'm doing a religion project and one part of it is how I would change the world. This is what I wrote. Considering I have 6 articles to write and this was just one of them it didn't have to be that amazing and I wrote more than I was supposed to anyway, but I really liked the subject I wrote about and I was just wondering if anyone had any ways I could make it better because this is probably the one he'll look at the most. My problem is that my teacher might hate the fact that I talk about intolerance considering he's the most intolerant person I know, but either way I like it so ya. I wrote it in like 20 minutes and I think I'll add more, so it's not perfect... and don't be too hard on me I'm in grade 9... and by the way, I'm Catholic so when I talk about my beliefs that's what I mean.
I’ve always been one to worry about things I can’t control, whether it be severe weather, the war, the economy, etc. I sit up at night thinking of what’s going to happen if we don’t change the way we act and help each other. And I truly believe that most of the worlds war and prejudice stems from religion. I’m not saying religion is bad, but I think people’s tolerance of religion is all wrong. We believe that our religion is right and that any other opinion is insane. All our lives we learn about Jesus and His ascension to Heaven. This almost seems normal to us, like the idea of someone rising from the dead is simply a part of our lives. Then we call a religion crazy for believing in multiple Gods whereas to them it seems normal as that is what they always hear. They grow up learning about it so it isn’t a big deal to them. It’s just a fact. Now, their religion might not be the truth, but to them it is. In their hearts they believe that it is a fact. In Ancient Egypt they truly believed that they would have an afterlife. Hindus truly believe that they will be reincarnated. We believe that we will all live in Heaven. When you look at those three beliefs they all seem pretty crazy, so why are we so intolerant to the ones that we don’t believe? A good example of intolerance to other religions is with Scientologists. Their beliefs seem pretty much insane. They think that an alien came thousands of years ago and put souls into a volcano in Hawaii. Famous Scientologists like Tom Cruise and John Travolta are ridiculed for their beliefs and Scientology is dismissed as a cult or joke. The thing is these people actually believe in it, so in their hearts it is the truth. As long as we believe something it is technically true.
I think that if we learned to stop looking down on a religion for being so different than ours we could make our world a lot better. War is mostly fought over religion, most of the time because we don’t understand why they believe in something. We don’t care that they were born into it and that they think it’s right. We just want them to be like us, whether we show it or not. Adolf Hitler looked down on the Jews because he didn’t get them, and the Holocaust was his way of trying to make the whole world the way he wanted it. He thought the Jews were crazy for their beliefs. Nowadays the first thing that comes to mind when we think of Hitler is pure evil. Really though we are being just like him when we call religions like Muslim, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Scientology or anything else crazy. Hitler hated Jews because he didn’t believe in what they did. So really we’re doing the same thing. Christians think they’re right about God and Heaven, whereas we’re just following what we grew up learning. If we just learned to understand other religions and let them go on, even if we think they’re wrong, then we could live a better world. After all, we believe that 2000 years ago a virgin had a child who rose from the dead to save us from the sin created by an apple and a talking snake, and that’s just as crazy us anything else in the world.
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I’ve always been one to worry about things I can’t control, whether it be severe weather, the war, the economy, etc. I sit up at night thinking of what’s going to happen if we don’t change the way we act and help each other. And I truly believe that most of the worlds war and prejudice stems from religion. I’m not saying religion is bad, but I think people’s tolerance of religion is all wrong. We believe that our religion is right and that any other opinion is insane. All our lives we learn about Jesus and His ascension to Heaven. This almost seems normal to us, like the idea of someone rising from the dead is simply a part of our lives. Then we call a religion crazy for believing in multiple Gods whereas to them it seems normal as that is what they always hear. They grow up learning about it so it isn’t a big deal to them. It’s just a fact. Now, their religion might not be the truth, but to them it is. In their hearts they believe that it is a fact. In Ancient Egypt they truly believed that they would have an afterlife. Hindus truly believe that they will be reincarnated. We believe that we will all live in Heaven. When you look at those three beliefs they all seem pretty crazy, so why are we so intolerant to the ones that we don’t believe? A good example of intolerance to other religions is with Scientologists. Their beliefs seem pretty much insane. They think that an alien came thousands of years ago and put souls into a volcano in Hawaii. Famous Scientologists like Tom Cruise and John Travolta are ridiculed for their beliefs and Scientology is dismissed as a cult or joke. The thing is these people actually believe in it, so in their hearts it is the truth. As long as we believe something it is technically true.
I think that if we learned to stop looking down on a religion for being so different than ours we could make our world a lot better. War is mostly fought over religion, most of the time because we don’t understand why they believe in something. We don’t care that they were born into it and that they think it’s right. We just want them to be like us, whether we show it or not. Adolf Hitler looked down on the Jews because he didn’t get them, and the Holocaust was his way of trying to make the whole world the way he wanted it. He thought the Jews were crazy for their beliefs. Nowadays the first thing that comes to mind when we think of Hitler is pure evil. Really though we are being just like him when we call religions like Muslim, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Scientology or anything else crazy. Hitler hated Jews because he didn’t believe in what they did. So really we’re doing the same thing. Christians think they’re right about God and Heaven, whereas we’re just following what we grew up learning. If we just learned to understand other religions and let them go on, even if we think they’re wrong, then we could live a better world. After all, we believe that 2000 years ago a virgin had a child who rose from the dead to save us from the sin created by an apple and a talking snake, and that’s just as crazy us anything else in the world.