The Magic Stick

Back in the days of cave drawings and living in trees we were animals.
We followed instinct and necessity and nobody spoke of a ‘magical sky daddy’ and his promises of life everlasting.

And you know what? We did ok. We developed a thing called ‘higher thought’ somewhere along the way. Some of you out there may be aware of it. It’s what separates us from our primate relatives. We are only above animals so long as we act that way.

With this higher thought process we came down from our trees and we used it to make tools.
We climbed the ladder as the dominant species.
We did pretty damn well for ourselves.

Then, something wondrous happened! With this astounding new thought process we expanded on our instincts that told us to look after our own, to occasionally lending a hand to others, just because it was the right thing to do.
We were all pretty happy with that. We had a basic moral code.
Common decency towards your fellow land ape sprang forth. Huzzah!

Then somebody came along, for whatever reason, with a magical stick and said if we didn’t do the right thing we’d burn in toasty fire pits.

……………

Somehow, somewhere along the way. someone thought it was a good idea to take common decency and wrap it up in lights and rituals.

They made being a nice person out to be some divine mission. It’s like a savers club: You collect enough good deed stamps and they’ll let you into the VIP area.

Why?

We don’t need this.

Being a nice person and doing the right thing shouldn’t be some sort of fantastical otherworldly merit system.
You do the right thing because it IS the right thing. You shouldn’t need to add bells and whistles to it just to make it happen.

If people really do need all the hocus pocus just to be a good person, then they aren’t good people to begin with.

If it takes a man with a magic stick and a pointy hat making threats on your immortal soul just to be decent to the people around you, then don’t worry too much about going to hell. It’s closer than you think.

-K