Discussing history and religious implications in my head is one of my pastimes.

Born and raised Catholic, I have been agnostic for a long time now. I believe in magic, and therefore I believe that something more might be possible, even if it is, rationally speaking, improbable.

The intricacies of Catholicism never cease to amaze me. The Inquisition, however, repulses me on a cellular level, since I was old enough to understand its atrocities. No one could ever properly explain the Inquisition to me, even after years of being educated in Catholic schools and attending church every Sunday.

When I was fourteen, I finally got annoyed enough to ask my religion teacher about it. He expelled me from the classroom without further explanation, simply stating that “we don’t discuss the Inquisition.” Very revealing.

Religious persecution, social envy, and economic predation — all masked as a mission to save people from heresy. Lies. Lies. Lies that fed ignorance. And it was ignorance that truly marked the divide between Jews and Catholics.

Jewish communities were, in the 15th century, comparatively highly literate, often multilingual, and active in specialised professions such as medicine, finance, and science. Meanwhile, much of the Catholic population remained uneducated and deeply bound to dogma.

As history shows, education tends to lead to influence, resources, and social climbing…how dare they? How dare they have more, being Jews? Envy, petiness and greed, also pillars of the Catholic Church!

Today brought this thoughts, because today, I visited a synagogue for the first time, on a guided tour. It felt strange and familiar at the same time — perhaps because, although I never managed to finish the Bible, I started it many times. I am far more familiar with the Old Testament than with the New.

So it got me thinking…

Much like the daily complaints about immigration in Portugal make me think about irony.

After being the initiators of modern colonialism — driven largely by the pursuit of resources from places like India and Brazil — Portugal now finds itself knee-deep in immigration from Pakistan, India, and Brazil.

The complaints sound painfully ironic:

“They don’t respect our culture.”
“They don’t adapt to us.”

Well… we spread across the world and forced Catholicism down everyone’s throats, whether they liked it or not. There wasn’t much concern for adapting to local cultures then.

I understand the complexity of the issue today, but I can’t help laughing at the historical symmetry. Because even if I don’t believe in religion, I definitely believe in karma.