Al Jazeera Opinion:13 Aug 2014 16:05
by: Cimi Skywalker
The faith of the individual has no bearing on Human Rights per se.
The texts, and teachings otherwise, of religious faiths have been corrupted through the centuries. Furthermore, most religious faiths have used, both in the oral tradition, and by extension, in the scribed manuscripts, both metaphor and allegory, to explain, through lengthy discourse, the meaning of the teaching(s). It is commonplace to get a sense that the underlying teachings of many, many, religious faiths have a common thread running deep within, and very likely have common ancient origins.
Furthermore, many modern renditions of manuscripts from various religions have been corrupted by the contemporary political regime(s). But; none-the-less, through the careful yet subtle understanding of the metaphor and allegory, it is possible to peel back the layers and layers of corruption, and then eventually, also, peel back the layers and layers of meaning, which may very well be fundamental principles of: an individual’s sovereignty; humility in serving others; respect and understanding in our regard for others; and the realization that a cultural memory serves to bind the actions of our ancestors, ourselves, and our prodigy into a cyclic hegemony that requires great discipline and acknowledgement of our fundamentally mechanical nature of response-reaction-formation The root of the ancient tenants may be simply “to know thyself.”
In summation: Human Rights mean we are free to do anything and everything in the interest of safeguarding our own life, so long as what we choose to do does not interfere in another person doing the same. Such a very simple tenant can not be understood or literated in so many words; for we have, through our cultural memory, lost the ability to have any meaningful level of empathy toward other individuals; and thus are unable to comprehend our own violations of other’s freedoms. At first glance, one may believe that unavoidable contradictions may occur in the above stated tenant; but such a notion is merely the symptoms of our lost empathy; and is the reason why the original teaching took so many lengthy discourses to be understood.