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Sunday, December 24, 2023

Planning for peace

I am tired of hoping for peace or praying for peace. It is time to plan for peace.

It is possible for all the world's faiths and religions to work together as part of a larger whole. The good news is this can bring freedom from fear. There will still be sickness and death, but these need not be faced alone. Instead of looking outwards to colonize and exploit foreign worlds, we can look inwards at how we can improve our communities, together.

The bad news is this means leaving behind the notion that my faith is the only true faith, and the goal is to convert all others. Working together in this way means acknowledging that Divine wisdom was not only revealed to one person in one place, but instead to many people in many places.

In the movie "The Matrix", the Oracle tells incompatible truths to two different characters. Quantum mechanics is full of experiments where reality appears differently depending on what type of measurements you take. The parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant also speaks to these principles, that reality is more complicated than the wisdom of any one person.

Copernicus said that the Earth is not the center of the universe. This is similar, because it may be deeply uncomfortable for some. There is nothing wrong with the religion or faith you were taught. What is needed is a sense of a larger overarching purpose, that all humanity can work together towards shared goals. Each person and faith and community has a part to play. I do not believe that any Being intelligent enough to create an atom would create a world with so much beauty and diversity without also having a plan of how all the elements of creation could work together in harmony.