For centuries, wars have been started for many reasons…among them the desire for more lands, greater riches, and a deep-seated need to have even more control over others…basically; Greed, Gluttony, Vanity, and self-righteousness.  For example:

If you have a different skin color than mine, I can justify hating you because I’m ’superior’ to you.  Of course, if I had been born with your skin color and you with mine, I would still be ’superior’ to you because you would still not have my skin color!

If we have the same skin color but you have brown eyes and I have blue, I am superior to you because ‘everyone ‘ knows that a blue-eyed person is more intelligent than a brown-eyed person.  If I am born with brown eyes, however, I know that I am more intelligent than anyone born with ‘recessive’ blue eyes.

Short people are smarter than tall people because they only have their brains to use as a weapon.

Tall people are more intelligent than short people because they learn how to use their brawn as well as their brains.

My ancestors came from…so I’m better than you. 

My family has more money…so I’m better than you.

I went to school at…so I’m better than you.

I don’t have any tattoos…so I’m more honest and honorable than you. 

And the differences go on and on and on…….until we come to the issue of religion in which tempers never cease to fly due to the righteous person’s desire to smite evil where it stands.

However, we are not born with religion like we are born with a certain skin color.  Religion is taught to us by others who were, themselves, taught these beliefs by others who were, themselves, taught these beliefs by others who………and so on.

More people have been killed in the name of religious belief than for any other reason on earth.

Because of having been taught certain religious beliefs…and the heartfelt reasons behind these beliefs…we either grow up with these beliefs being held deep in our hearts or we embrace these beliefs as an older person who was introduced to them a little later on in life.  In either case, we believe what is in our hearts.

But this doesn’t give us the right to try and change another person’s belief.  The only ‘right’ we have been given is the right to love others as we would love ourselves…to do only good to others…to love our enemies…to do no harm to anyone…and so on.

Just about all religions speak of doing good…of loving others…of helping those less fortunate than you. 

Each religion recognizes a Greater Power who is there for us in times of need. 

Each religion recognizes a basic belief that there is life after death, although our specific ideas may be different.

Whether we are Buddist, Hindu, apache, wiccan, Mormon, Seventh Day Adventist, jewish, christian,  or a member of a religion that I don’t know of or am presently unable to think of, we are all in the same boat of Life and traveling down that river of Experience and Learning until we finally reach the entranceway to The Other Side.

And when I get to The Other Side, I want to see people of all different heights, weights, skin color, eye color, and any other variation that can be thought up without being a physical disability. 

I would like to spend eternity among a smorgasbord of color and a variety of opinion because, after all, I think we are all canvasses that God has painted on.  Some of us have more color than others but we are all unique…we are far from boring…and we are all God’s children.