My favorite Super Bowl ad... was about Jesus.
My views on religion, love, and hate.
Most people know I’m not a religious person. At my very religious high school, I was likely one of the most hated students by the catholic leaders. Not because I was a bad student. But because I was a bad catholic. I never agreed with the teachings and doctrines taught to us in school. I don’t think they were very good spiritual teachers and mostly just used religion to get us to comply or to keep us in line. I never recall discussing morality, combating true hate or discussing the meaning of life. We mostly focused on memorizing prayers and making sure we recited them enough times each morning.
So you would be surprised to hear that my favorite commercial at this week’s Super Bowl was about Jesus. The newly formed organization, He Gets Us, spent $20 million to run two ads that spread a simple message. Choose love. Not hate. We are too often confused by all the debates around religion and religious beliefs that we forget the most simple messages.
This ad along with their other powerful message is trying to tell the world to stop hating each other. The organization behind these ads is not affiliated with any political organization or any religions denominations. They are not “left” or “right”. They are just trying to get people to take a step back and understand some of the most important messages that this important historical/mythical/hypothetical figure tried to teach us. Love. Don’t hate… This message really resonates with me as I think most of our problems in the world are because we are resorting to hate too often. We are also diluting and mislabeling the word hate and frequently confusing good and evil.
When watching a discussion between two wise religious experts recently, (Dennis Prager and Jordan Peterson), I was enlighten to a major problem in my perception of religion.
In making the case that humans need religion in their lives, Prager has frequently argued that the problem isn’t that all religions are bad. It’s simply that they are taught by bad religious people. He has famously stated that: “If your religion doesn't teach you the difference between good and evil, your religion is worse than useless.”
I have no plans to start attending church on Sundays anytime soon. Just like the catholic schools I grew up attending, I still think that most organized churches in my country are led, (as Prager would describe) by bad religious people.
But I do agree that humans need religion or spirituality. I think all humans are inherently religious without even knowing it. Most people believe that someone or something higher up is judging their actions. If it’s not God, it’s Karma or some other belief that we are accountable to for our actions. I truly think that religion gives us morality. It’s what differentiates us from all other animals.
Some people argue that humans could be moral or could have learned morality without religion. And I agreed with that atheist position at some point in my life. But deeper thinking on the subject has made me realize I was wrong.
One exercise I’ve run in my head many times that convinces me that humans need religion or a form of God to exist is the following.
Imagine you were exempt from the law for one full day and you could steal from anyone or kill anyone for 24 hours. You were also given every weapon, equipment or tool to take on anyone in the world. Would you take advantage of this situation to move yourself up in life? Why not kill or steal enough to ensure your families success for generations to come? In that scenario 99.9% of animal species would. It’s a natural animal instinct to steal or kill to get ahead. Not every animal does. But it’s only because they aren’t powerful enough. A wolf doesn’t avoid the bear because of morality. He avoids him because the bear is stronger. If a pack of wolves find a weakened bear cub alone, they will kill it. Regardless if that is fair or not.
Most animals don’t steal (some do). But it’s not because they think stealing is wrong. It’s because they just don’t know how.
The difference between all other animal species and humans is that we somehow understand what is good and evil. How do we understand this? How do most people (many don’t) put aside their animal instincts to kill, steal or enslave against their own self-interest? The only answer is that we believe in a God. Or as Jordan Peterson says, we “act as if God exists”. I don’t think that is a controversial opinion. It’s obvious that the majority of people act as if God exists. That’s why humans are mostly civil.
So back to me, and my religious beliefs. I’ve come to realize that I’ve been asking the wrong questions most of my life. I don’t think it matters what specific religion I believe in (Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism). What matters is that I know that I believe in something. I always have. I just didn’t always know it.
If your religion doesn't teach you the difference between good and evil, your religion is worse than useless. - Dennis Prager
As a child I learned the 10 commandments. I was taught that I shouldn’t steal. I was taught that I shouldn’t lie. But I was never taught why I shouldn’t. It’s way too simple to say that humans just know the difference between good and evil. It’s way too simple to assume that given the choice, humans nature will always choose good. Why would they?
Last summer I observed one of our barn cats hunt for the first time. I was often able to observe him because it took a long time for this cat to kill his prey. One of his first times it took him two hours from the first bite into a mouse, until the mouse finally died. This mouse likely suffered tremendously throughout the ordeal. The cat made the mouse suffer seemingly needlessly for over an hour when he could have easily killed it in seconds. Was my cat evil? Would a good cat have spared the mouse of suffering? No. My cat doesn’t know good and evil. He doesn’t love or hate the mouse. Every single action he takes is based on improving his survival and reproductive chances in the world. So with the mouse, the cat could have killed it in 2 seconds but in the process he might have taken a tiny bit higher chance of injuring himself. So he took the full hour to slowly weaken this other animal and took zero chances with his own safety. This was at the cost of much more pain to the mouse.
Love and Hate
My cat doesn’t understand love and hate (I’m sorry to break it to you, but your dog doesn’t either). Only humans can understand love and hate. Only humans can understand good and evil. And only because we act as if God exists. Maybe not all the same God. But a God…
The famous Super Bowl ad this week spreads such a simple message. It’s not asking us to pick a side on abortions, marriages or any of the controversial LGBT or racial issues. The message is clear. Jesus loved the people we hate…
The presence of hate and lack of love is at the root of the racial debates in the world. It was at the root of historical racial injustices (and to a certain extent injustices today). Similarly to what we have seen with COVID debates, racial segregation of the past tried to use science to justify segregating races. But we see the obvious truth that the policies of making black people drink from different water fountains or denying Jews into certain restaurants never had any scientific rationale. They were rooted in hate. It’s obvious today, but 99.9% of society would have adamantly denied that association at the time.*
*As I described in my recent book, although we see similarities today, the injustices of 2021-2023 do not come close what happened in the 20th century.
Hate was at the root of much of injustice towards LGBT groups in the past. But it’s also what is preventing us from having any meaningful debates today on very important topics. Many claim that those who want to debate LGBT issues are simply hateful. But the ones shutting down debate are just as hateful towards those who hold different beliefs then they do. Children are being taught that there is only one theory or ideology and that opposing it is hateful. In the name of purportedly “fighting hate” we are being taught to hate those who disagree with us.
The same happened with the COVID pandemic. I dedicated my recent book about the debacle of vaccine mandates to those “who chose love over fear…” Too many policies of the past 3 years have lacked scientific rationale and were rooted in hatred towards some who were inconvenient to a narrative or didn’t fall in line. Authorities overused the word hate when they branded all of us against lockdowns as “hating the elderly” or “hating children” whom they claimed to be saving by locking them all in their homes for two years or forcing them to wear masks for 8 hours a day. While we diluted the meaning of the word we ignored the obvious forms of hate presenting itself before our eyes…
He Gets Us’ second ad at the Super Bowl shared an equally important message. It stressed that we should all act more like children. This is a confusing message, like many of the Bibles lessons. But if interpreted correctly it can be powerful. The message is that Jesus wanted us to be like children when it comes to hate and love. Children don’t hate. At a young age, they don’t understand hate. They don’t see different races. They don’t see vaccinated or unvaccinated people. I observe it everyday in my own children. Jesus wanted us to be like them. Treat each other equally with respect and dignity. Regardless of our differing beliefs. Regardless of our races. Regardless of our personal health decisions.