Ifyouaskme, the events of the past years, where the planet has been dragged down deeper and even deeper into a seemingly unending spiral of religious hatred, atrocities and cruelty, demonstrates, conclusively, that we are on the brink of a new dark age. A time when war, murder and rape have been turned into weapons of religious intolerance, when atrocities are everyday events, when people are being exterminated based solely upon their beliefs. Pure evil, in the form of religious extremism as represented by Daesh and all of it’s offshoots, has been let loose on the planet and is running rampart and, seemingly, with the goal of destroying civilisation and all examples of human diversity and original thought.
Yet when you think about this, how ridiculous is this situation? Extremists are carrying out these crimes against humanity in the name of their god, who they claim is the one true god. If he is the one true God, then he must have created all people, all races and all of our differing societies. If you take this thought of omnipotence further then, by default, he must have created all religions too or at least created the circumstance by which these religions came about and grew. The very thought of claiming to be doing God’s work, while destroying and attacking that which he created, brings into question the very validity of that religion, and indeed, all religions and to do this based upon the writings of a man, is the ultimate hypocrisy.
However, without being drawn into a long and never-ending debate on religion, there are a couple of powerful words that I would like to draw from the Christian faith and I would like to extend these words to ALL people, everywhere on the planet and which I hope might make, at least, some small difference. Those words are:
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Now, regardless of your religion, or lack of religion, I would like you to just accept these words in the manner in which they are meant. I believe that the basic message of Christmas extends well beyond the Christian faith and should be appreciated by all people of all faiths. You don’t have to believe in Jesus Christ to accept these words. Nor do you have to attend a Christian church, or be confirmed into the Christian religion, to take heart from the meaning of this simple salutation. Even more so, there is absolutely no need to take offence or believe that it is a sin to say these words to anyone, anywhere and from any religion. This is because the real meaning, behind this greeting, is to extend a wish for:
Peace, love and goodwill to ALL people.
Now, how can such a statement be a sin? How could anyone possibly issue a fatwa against such a noble thought? It doesn’t matter if you are Christian, or Moslem, Buddhist, Hindu, Aetheist, Agnostic or of any other faith or belief, this basic Christian message of Christmas extends to everyone. You don’t have to be a Christian to believe in love, peace and goodwill. You don’t have to hold any religious beliefs at all, to appreciate the value of this message.
And in these dark times I believe that we all, every person on this planet, needs to hear and embrace these simple, yet powerful words, so I will repeat them once more:
Merry Christmas to each and every person on the planet, and I wish all people of all religions, love, peace and goodwill at this festive time of the year.