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The 2005-2006 First Place Essay

   In every definition of the word "belief", there's a particular emphasis on conviction and absolute trust in something or someone. In order for someone to believe in something, they must focus all of their attention, all of their thoughts, all of their emotions towards a particular cause or movement. Beliefs have been consistently detrimental to our society, whether it's in politics or religion. Pete Hamill, an accomplished writer once stated that, "Belief is the great killer. Political belief has slaughtered millions. Religious belief has slaughtered the rest." Unfortunately, this quote has never been truer in recent times, in which both ideologies reign in society.
Although I am now an outspoken atheist, religion was a major part of my childhood. I never understood it all as a kid; I took in the biblical stories and characters like any other fictional stories. I was fascinated, because the stories I was told were so basic, the characters in them were so simple. But as I grew up, small things started to bother me and I started to question things. There were so many saints and disciples, and Mary and God, and Joseph and Jesus; I never actually knew who I was praying to, or why! There was a church, which is made up of priests and bishops and archbishops and cardinals and deacons and a pope and brothers and nuns. At the head of this church, are a bunch of old men who continue to cling like ticks to old scriptures and liturgies written by other old men. These readings, that the church still follows so devoutly today, were used for the next several centuries to spread fear, to cause holy wars, and keep nations of people under a spell. This spell is faith, a form of strong belief and trust in God.
Although I speak from personal experience, I feel the theory of religious belief is quite universal. Whether it is Islamic, Jewish, or Christian beliefs, you have groups of people devoted to a certain ideal, a certain perception on the theories of right and wrong. In America, most political speeches and justifications attempt to tie in Christian "values." Not long after the 9/11 tragedy, President Bush made a speech addressing Congress and the American people. At the end of his speech, he said, "Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them…assured of the rightness of our cause, and confident of the victories to come. In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may He watch over the United States of America." The President is known as a very religious man, and it obviously shows in this speech. In this statement and many others to follow, we see further proof that beliefs cause destruction, that if a politician believes that he or she has God's blessing, they are able to justify acts of aggression, or even more so, a war. Mark Twain once said that the modern religious man, "is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven." The War in Iraq, despite other reasons given by the administration, undoubtedly is rooted in this certain Christian ideology.
According to political leaders nowadays, they are bringing values and freedom to Iraq, the same country where many thousands of Iraqis have been killed by the orders of the very same people. Once again, religious belief seems to justify blood spilt as victory, the slaughter of fellow men as freedom. The other ongoing wars in the Middle East, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are all deeply-rooted in conflicting beliefs, over settlements and holy lands. At the heart of all this violence, is an unending struggle to define right and wrong. The problem is, there is no right or wrong. No matter what, religious leaders will argue and debate, they will never reach a just conclusion. As long as there is religion at the heart of a country's ideology, there will be violence and hostility. As long as there is a devotion to a cause, to a movement based on age-old institutions and texts, there will be no freedom. There will be no peace. There will be no justice.
In addition to religion, the modern political world today is so corrupt I could never begin to describe it all in proper detail. In America, you have a majority of people who despite all the evidence pointing to a dishonest government, willingly elected them all back again. The same majority sent fellow countrymen off to distant lands only to find death and destruction. The same majority that forgives the President whenever he gives a "convincing" apology on national television.
In our democratic system, you have a bunch of belief-based parties. You have one party that has no more political legitimacy, except to repeat simple things over and over again like some childhood phonics toy. You have a second party that is so weak, they merely shiver and stumble in a debate. You have a third party who is made up of so many of their own specific belief systems, that once again you're only confined to a certain group and a particular interest… which doesn't make them any different than the rest. Then you have a few, intelligent ones who hate party politics, who call themselves middle grounded and don't have a say in anything at all because that's what happens when a government or society is run by beliefs. You must vote with a particular belief system, otherwise you aren't counted, considered, or included.
The administration in our country still sticks with the belief that the war in Iraq was justified, that they are winning a war on terrorism, and that they are freeing lives and spreading democracy. But that's the problem with our government and others like it. Islamic extremists enact terrorism with car-bombings and hijackings, and our government and its allies send off troops to find and cause death and destruction overseas. Patriotism is at the heart of our modern political belief system. To fight for your country is to be patriotic. To be patriotic, you must support your government no matter what, you must believe in your leaders, and you must never question your nation's actions. But aren't patriotism and all of these strong convictions just more and more justifications for terrorism, violence, and war? Friedrich "http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/" once defined faith as "Not wanting to know what is true." You must have this sort of blind faith to follow a party, to follow a leader, to follow something no matter what. In order to follow, you must close your eyes, remain ignorant, hide away reason, and fall into the abyss of ignorance.
It is this very devotion to a certain belief that is killing everyone off. It is the belief in right or wrong, the belief in heaven or hell, the belief in left or right. These are all beliefs; all of them lead in one direction. If you believe in something long enough, you'll be convinced. If you believe a war was right and say it over and over, you'll believe it. If you say you believe in God and repeat prayers over and over and go to church every Sunday, you'll believe in God. But belief does not mean the truth. Truth does not mean belief.
"In religion and politics", quoted Mark Twain, "people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing." In politics and religion you have leaders and followers. In both institutions, you have mainly old men running the show, holding old texts and throwing their rules and values at you. In both institutions, you have old men telling you to fear things, telling you what fact is, telling you that if you think otherwise you are wrong. If you don't love your country, you're unpatriotic and if you don't love your god, you're sinful. In both situations, they leave only room for followers. No questioning is allowed, for questioning is against faith, against devotion. If you question a belief, you are non-believer. It is yes or no. It is right or wrong. Unless you believe and trust in one of their extremes, you are nothing.
"I do not believe in belief", E.M. Forster once stated. If you choose not to follow these belief systems and stand up for yourself, you can overcome injustice. The one place where all the values this world needs is in a song written by John Lennon, called Imagine. "…Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, No religion too. Imagine all the people, living life in peace…" Without restricting ourselves to beliefs in religion, to politics, to material possessions, to wars, to patriotism… we are free.
Humans are not meant to be categorized by belief systems. If you stand up for yourself and your own individual reason, you stand up for others. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once quoted, "Thought takes man out of servitude, into freedom." Don't wave a white flag of surrender to age old beliefs, place your own flag in the ground in the name of humanity. Politics and religion aren't human qualities, they are labels. They are things made by humans, just like guns and bombs.
The only thing that is truly human to you and you alone, is your mind. If you choose to think and exercise this one, single tool that is true to yourself, you won't have to follow anyone or any belief. Once you think for yourself, you can become the leader.