Today, like most days at some point, but only fleetingly, I’ve been contemplating religion and politics. Not as individual entities, but as one.

Politics and religion turn out to be similar to an extreme, bordering on sameness. Religion and politics, both require unmindful blindness to reality to be properly consumed and digested.

There are multiple facets to every tenet of both political and religious philosophies. But, here politics nudges slightly past religion. Eventually, political ideology will either be proven or disproven and bear either positive or negative results. Religious ideology will never be absolutely proven to be negative or positive. The benefits are only in the mind of the believer. True believers will never admit to any negatives regarding their faith.

A democratic republic requires political parties of varied disparate ideals and game plans. All parties presumably must have total, or adequate, belief in the goals and the means of achieving them. The two or more sides of the equation hash it out and, ideally, come to a conclusion that the reasoning behind which, leads to a meaningful way to serve the citizens of that republic.

Religion doesn’t work that way. Even though there are a myriad of dogmas and beliefs represented by religious sects, they are supposedly aiming at the same targets. But, they are not. The salvation of souls, and making life on this blue orb a more pleasant existence for all is the general theme. It never works. Souls are not saved, and religious beliefs create wars and cause extreme greed to flourish. Just like politics.

When any group of people believes that religion should have a place in the ruling of a democratic republic, they are basically betting their bankroll that a unicorn will be appearing to take them to Nirvana. It’s not going to happen. There are too many denominations, cults, sects, and covens for this plan to gain traction. Governing for the good of one set of religious beliefs, by definition, excludes the believers of other ideologies. This leads to unrest, anger and eventual violence. You see, religious zealots are too frequently willing to die or kill for their particular religious bent. Next, an autocrat comes along and decides that they will just shut down all beliefs other than their own. There goes the democratic republic. All of that is created by two separate philosophic mindsets that humans have and will always cling to despite the harm they may create.

Maybe I shouldn’t think about it.