Is love all we need?

 ^{https://pixabay.com/photos/alone-boy-need-hug-love-life-7420209/} Recently, just this week, after a brief exchange of messages in a group of friends I have on Telegram, the topic of religion came up in conversation. It wasn't addressed directly, much less in a persecutory manner. Although we are not childhood friends, one thing we have is respect for what others think and say. And this emergence of the topic got me thinking. I haven't yet read the article suggested by one of my friends, about a new perspective on how we can deal with our own lives and how we view them. I am basically a believer. I believe that God exists. It may not be, and most likely is not, the way we imagine it, or how we try to rationalize it. But it is part of our way of relating to something that is not part of the matrix in which we move and interact. But is there any fundamental difference in the way well-intentioned people act, whether or not they have a religion, or even if they have a religion, whether they are of one particular religion or another? In my little mind, I think it can all be summed up in a simple phrase, or a simple idea. “Love others as you love yourself.” The phrase and the idea are simple, but they are not easy to fulfill. Is the world we think we live in nothing more than a construct of what is really important? A thousand years from now, someone will remember us, but what about ten thousand years from now? Our existence should not be based on achieving the greatest feats and possessing certain characteristics that make us more unique in our time... Everything passes. We are born, and we will die. We live in this matrix. We don't know what lies beyond it, or if there is even anything beyond it. This afternoon, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts: Diary of a CEO, with Steven Bartlett. In this episode, which I listened to almost immediately, his guest Donald Hoffman presents his own unique view of what he considers to be a different way of gaining perspective. Although he is not a believer by default, he believes in a consciousness that goes far beyond the dimensions and reality that we believe we see, hear, touch, or even feel... Everything we witness is nothing more than signals sent by our sensory organs, which are then processed and somehow converted into nerve impulses, which in the respective brain center will trigger or inhibit a certain response. How can we say that the signals we receive from the outside are really that? If we reduce the distances we have in our “reality” to the 10th power raised to -32 millimeters, and turn them into such a tiny fraction, they will no longer obey the laws of “space and time”! You see, all it takes is for the dimension of something we consider to be innate to the reality we believe we live in to change scale, for everything to cease to obey an orchestra we believe we perceive... I confess that I will listen to the podcast again, but this time I will take the time to watch it on YouTube, as the visual information may help me to internalize the guest's main message. And you, do you believe that religions are all a fraud, that they only seek to profit from the weakness of their followers, believers; or, on the contrary, do you think that in the weakness of each individual, the church brings together a strength for each one, and together, a community overcomes the difficulties of life, trying to make this little corner a little more pleasant? Sorry if this post is a little confusing. My ideas are also a little jumbled... For reference, here is the [Youtube link](https://youtu.be/W0vTZrZny6A) to the podcast I mentioned in my reflection today. Thank you for your time. ##### Bem Hajam🍀  --- ^{Free image from [Pixabay.com](https://pixabay.com/)}