A WONDER.
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
What came first, shame or religion? Before you say anything to rebuttal me, ask any questions, or dismiss what I’m trying to say, hear me out first, please I beg of you. First, a definition of both words is needed. I’ll use a google definition because it’s the go-to for a lot of people in a lot of situations.
Religion - A pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.
Shame - A painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior.
Now that we somewhat know these two definitions, hear me out. For starters let’s take the Bible as an example, in the Bible depending on how you look at it, it’s hard to tell which came first because God was a supreme being, he created Adam and Eve and had some supreme importance all things considered. It’s hard to say if Adam and Eve had the feeling of interest, the feeling of wonder, the eagerness to know more than they did, it seems not. The first feeling of interest we get from Adam or Eve was when the serpent tempted Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge and she was interested in doing it, that was the first sense of wonder we get from the Bible, that was the first question that was the first challenge ever experienced, rebellion due to curiosity, and that was only the beginning, curiosity really did kill the cat.
Side note, why was that a bad thing, why didn’t God want us to have knowledge in the first place, in a way the serpent only wanted mankind to know more about themselves. That’s one of the big problems today, one’s identity, a lot of us are stuck in a state of not knowing, what you are or your purpose and I would assume this was the same with Adam and Eve, it’s even worse for us because we have a frame of reference and Adam and Eve didn’t, it can go both ways in terms of thinking about it… Eve eating from the tree of knowledge might just be the best thing that has ever happened to human existence, conceptually as opposed to literally, for all we know the Bible might only be a mythology of some sort rather than a reality that took place at someplace in the past time.
In my understanding people fear shame more than they fear anything else, that is why we follow the Joneses, we try to live a facade of a life just to feel like we are on the same plane field with them, whoever “them” are, it might be your neighbor who has a beautiful family that you’ve always dreamt of having, it might be your friend’s girlfriend that you’ve always had a crush on, it might be the one percent wealthy people in our society, and just is just but to mention a few of the people you might live a lie for. Insecurities stem from shame, most of them I think, insecurities are just a version of us that is ashamed of what we are, or what we have become. Revealing that part of us to the world is rather hard, I think that’s why we feel like we need to get rid of that part in order to fit in. Insecurities can be challenging at times, feeling uncomfortable in your own skin, I can’t think of something worse than that at this moment, of course, there are worse things than that, but insecurities are up there with other feelings that can’t be explained by the majority of us and it has been this way since the beginning of time. I remember when I was young I was highly insecure about some things, one of them was when I was in high school and I was bullied or rather made fun of for being of a darker complexion than my friends and the people who did this were my friends, it was all banter of course, but banter can get to a twelve-year-old at times, I don’t think that’s a stretch whatsoever. Sometimes I sat down and felt bad, sometimes it hurt I’m not going to lie, but looking back, it was what it was. It didn’t bother me as much because I had already accepted me for me, and there was nothing I could do about it, I was born the way I was and for me to be me today I had to be that, I had to go through that to accept me for me, and that is an important part of me that I’m proud of, I didn’t do something stupid like bleach my skin like most kids did back in my school, kids who weren’t even dark, they were just chasing the lighter skin complexion, what a shame, what a shame.
Currently reading [God is Not One by Stephen Prothero]
