Imagine
is without a doubt John Lennon's most successful song. It has been sung by people all over the world from Iranian protesters to the President of the United States (Bill Clinton). The song, with its mellow music asks us to imagine a Utopian existence with no heaven, no countries, no religion, and no need for greed or possessions. It concludes that if these things are removed there will be people only living for today, peace, and worldwide unity where everyone is fed and has all they need. At first this song may present something desirable. When in reality if Lennon's dream were to come true and there were no religion this world would be in a heap of hurt and trouble.Even if there were a world where everyone had food and there were no wars, people would still suffer. Humans are not the only cause of suffering in this world. Nature has its way of wreaking havoc on us humans. Just think of Hurricane Katina, or the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, or the 1931 floods in China which killed somewhere between 2 and 4 million people or we could currently look to those starving from famine around the world. Imagine if there were no religion during and after these disasters. Many, many more people would have died. As it is an indisputable fact that the number one source of relief in these disasters, both short and long term are religious organizations. It is the religious who step up and save lives during hard times.
This past winter the city I live in experienced one of the worst snow storms in its history. The first place people who had no shelter were able to go was churches. The churches in our community saved the lives of many people who would have otherwise frozen to death. Lennon is out of touch thinking that a world with no religion would be a good place.
A world without religion would be a world without hope, a world without peace, a world filled with suffering and no one to care about it. I say we should imagine a world of true religion that doesn't take advantage of people. A world where the hope of heaven drives people to work harder at making this world a better place for all. Imagine a world as God would truly have it, if we would only allow it.
2 comments:
Amen to that, but we have to admit, at the same time we wave our "Good Samaritan" flags, that religion has done plenty of awful things as well. Institutionalized, commercial slavery was protected by the "Christian" British Empire, Religious zeal formed the bulwark of the U.S. Revolutionary Rebellion (oh, yeah, rebellion is ok if . . .), not to mention the crusades, sweatshop mentality, etc.
God only knows the evil and the good that has been perpetrated by people claiming to be his servants.
Your point is well made, I do not deny the atrocities committed in the name of religion. It actually makes me sick when I begin to think of the horrible things done or not done in the name of Christ. Which is why I ended the post with "Imagine a world as God would truly have it, if we would only allow it."
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