A Remembrance

I really can't believe it's been a decade since that Tuesday morning in September when our lives changed forever.

It's been a decade and a day since the last time I didn't think about terrorism. Or the dangers of extremism. Or why we can't all just live with our differences. After all, we're all stuck on this rock together, and nobody gets out alive.

A decade ago, I began to seriously question faith and religion. I thought about how the people who so easily killed over three thousand innocent strangers did so in the name of religion. And then I thought about the numerous other terrible acts perpetrated throughout history, all in the name of some theological beliefs.

And, a few years ago, after much thought and consideration, I arrived at the conclusion that no religion comes without negative consequences.



Over the course of my life, my religious views have gone from being a devout, obedient Catholic, to being a skeptic who views all religions - from the mainstream belief systems that have existed for thousands of years, to the cults that have sprung up in the last few - as little more than organized willful ignorance.

There are those who will argue that religion is a positive force. To those individuals, I ask whether any given religion is positive for everyone, or if it is only positive for those who subscribe to it?

Why should innocent people have to die for something that is supposedly so good and pure? What use is any belief system for which lives have been ended? I'm not just talking about Islam. I'm talking about Catholicism. I'm talking about Protestantism. I'm talking about Mormonism. Or really, just about any religion. Sure, forgiveness may be preached, but is it practiced? Why do we really need religion, anyway? Isn't it far more noble to treat our fellow humans with respect for the sake of treating them with respect? Do we really need a theology telling us we need to do it? Can't we be good to one another without religion?

We can certainly be horrible to one another because of it...

I think back to the attacks on this day, ten years ago. The lives lost, the hopes and dreams shattered, the innocence taken away from us. I think about how the events of that day changed me in ways I could never have imagined.

I think about the seemingly endless footage of planes and explosions and rubble on the days following 9/11. I never saw the World Trade Center in person, but that doesn't stop my heart from sinking a little bit every time I see images of it, and I think of the awful events that occurred there, ten years ago today.



New York, you're always on my mind, and you always will be.