My God is Better Than Yours?

Is it a long enough life to learn all we need? Or to live the life we want? Are we always gonna be satisfied, or always thinking about what we did wrong? Is it living in the past to see what we can do better in the present and the future? Or are we living in the future, thinking about what we did wrong in the past?

If life is not enough, can we live our lives by ourselves? Or do we always need constant validation? Do we need rules to perform? Spiritually? Guides? Can we just write our own guides? Why do we keep thinking that all people need the same guides when we are so god damn different? I know many people—at least 1,000—and I have never, ever found someone that is like me, acts like me, or thinks like me. We’re so god damn special and unique, so why do we keep playing the same game with the same rules if we’re so different?

Do we need a GOD? What’s GOD?

Never on Santa's List

When I was little, I grew up in the countryside with no television, no internet, no DVDs, and no computer until a certain age (it was my present for my sweet 15). This meant that when my mom told us we were Jehovah's Witnesses, I did not question it. I just followed it. Of course—what else can a disconnected kid do? Because of that, I was not allowed to celebrate birthdays, Christmas, or whatsoever. So yeah, I did not believe in Santa. And that's super sad.

I will never forget when I was playing at the storm drains once, and a friend from the alleyway was with us. She said something like, "Santa Claus brought me this and that." Funny story: we were super poor, so it was actually convenient for my mom to have us not believing in Santa, because then she did not need to play the fool and spend money on gifts. But it slipped out of my mouth that Santa was not real. Oh my god, her mom was so angry! I believe they had the right to be, but come on—nothing is less important to a kid who doesn't have those beliefs. You simply just don’t care, and that’s it. But I wish that I could have waited for Santa during the nights and had the illusion that he would bring some presents to me. I was always a good girl, but I was never on Santa's list.

Same Characters, Different Storytellers

Okay, when I was 12, my mom decided that we would be Catholics now. And what did I say? Of course, why not! I’m a super good girl, and I got baptized at 12 years old. At the end of the road, it was the same GOD, the same characters, just a slightly different storyteller.

Believing in one single GOD was super easy to do, as that was the only thing everybody knew in the region, and I bet in the entire country. Argentina is deeply monotheistic; demographic data shows that historically, around 70% or more of the population identifies as Roman Catholic. It was the only reality we knew.

Culture Shock and the "Milkshake" of Deities

But when I moved to Europe, my whole belief system just fell apart. Come on, there are so many religions out here, so many different GODs! And then I asked: how on earth can it be that there are so many GODs, yet science and anthropological data prove that human cultures across the globe independently invented thousands of different deities to explain the universe? And we only have one GOD? So boring! But my GOD does not accept other GODs. Why? And who decides which one is the legitimate one? My mind sings to the rhythm of the song "Milkshake" by Kelis, but flipped: "My God is better than yours, damn right, it's better than yours..."

At least in polytheistic religions where they have many GODs, they are usually okay with us having only one GOD. But come on. Our GOD is not okay with other GODs? Ah? That's weird. Religion should bring people together instead of setting them apart. How many wars, conflicts, and atrocities throughout history have been carried out under the name of GOD? Come on, people, we can do better than this.

And what’s the origin of religion anyway? Science and history tell us that religious beliefs evolved as evolutionary tools to help early human tribes cooperate. But what would you say to me nowadays if I found an old book and started convincing all of you that we need to follow it because it came from GOD? If you look at real facts of how modern cults develop, would you believe me if I started one right now? No, right? Because you would think that I am nuts.

And what about the author of the book? Nobody knows him. What if he was a normal writer like me, just trying to write his next bestseller, and somebody just took it the wrong way? It’s like me believing that Harry Potter is a GOD, and when we die, we are all gonna go to Hogwarts and play quidditch forever. Come on.

The Team Jerseys of Faith

And why do people act like a good person just to get some recognition and a recompense at the end of life? Are you actually good, or are you faking it then? Is it not better to be a good person just because this world needs good people, and we should take care of each other, and that’s it?

Having faith is good, and I believe it has done more good in creating communities and bringing people together than bad. But right now, it’s like a football match: Argentinian God against Indian God. Come on, this cannot be real. Let’s take off the jerseys and just be human beings being good to everybody. That’s it.

Religion many times controls people's brains. It programs people like we are robots, unable to think for ourselves. As soon as you think something different, then you’re out of the tribe. How ridiculous is that? If we are so damn different and special, why shall we act like we are ordinary and all the same? It does not make any sense.

The Algorithm and the Grass

And what about when all these new AI GODs start appearing? Because at least science can correct itself when something is proven wrong, but religion cannot; it is forever outdated. And guess what? AI is the most updated thing always, theoretically unbiased by human mortality. What will happen when algorithms start dictating what we should do, eat, dress, and think? Will we just say, "Yes, I’m a good girl, let’s do it anyway to make my parents proud"?

Come on. We should think for ourselves. Your rights end where another person's rights start. Just be good, and don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you. If you hurt someone, acknowledge it, ask for forgiveness, and don’t do it again. You do not even need to fully understand why what you did hurt them; if that person told you it felt bad and was wrong, then it is wrong. You don’t get to decide what another person thinks or feels. Be nice.

Maybe it's because we humans want to live more than one life that we keep inventing new rules and GODs. But being honest, I believe we need to be more critical, more empathetic, and less judgmental.

I am not a cynic—maybe a little bit. I do believe there is something else, something bigger than all of us in the universe. But that powerful thing would not be stupid enough to put society against each other. It would pray for love and union. That thing is interconnected, beautiful, and perfect—it’s nature. We are nature. We belong to all of it. We’re gonna die and feed the worms, and the worms will feed the trees, and the cycle will keep going. So there is something bigger than us, or maybe we are all just part of that very important energy on the planet. We’re all interconnected, and the grass does not care who you are or how you look; it will eat you anyway. So just be nice, and stop playing "my God is better than yours," because we are all going to the same hole. Just be nice. Because... My God is better than yours?