Could it be that being taught religion so stringently is one of the reasons that our people and neighbours back East are more one-dimensional in thought? Religion teaches people not to question "the words of God". If they cannot question "God", doesn't that make them more susceptible to worshiping religious figures, political leaders, kings, rulers, dictators, fathers, elders, etc.? Once this “divine” allegiance is engrained in the minds of people at an early age (via religious teachings), doesn’t it also make it harder to break “less-divine” forms of allegiance in later years?
Moreover, doesn’t interaction with “same” others as a result of living in homogeneous or semi-homogeneous countries, cities, villages, neighbourhoods also impede thought evolution and debilitate the chances of breaking loose of the allegiance philosophy?
In Lebanon – which is a relatively less homogenous country than others in its vicinity – people tend to be more open to different thoughts. Although in Lebanon we might end up slaughtering each other over silly disagreements, before we actually pull out our knives or after we put down the guns we are more open to hearing opposing views or “crazy” views than other people of neighbouring countries. Lebanon’s diversity has somewhat aided us in liberating our thoughts to an extent.
The impediment to taking things beyond this stage remains religious loyalty and homogeneous communities. Will the day come when we see all neighbourhoods in Lebanon a mixture of different religious communities, or better yet, secular communities where no one knows the other’s religion and religion-specific names become a thing of the past?
What do you do when things are too "holy" to discuss?