Do the past and present offer any guidance to the future?

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift, that's why its called the present." We have always seen the past as history, and as something to learn from. Only by looking into the past can we see the future, as they say. When we look back into the past, we see many things that we have done wrong that can be corrected if we tried. To ensure that our future is not marred by poor decisions made by people not fully aware of the situation, we need to look at the past for guidance.

One thing that has changed from the past is our interpretation of what a secular state is. In the past, a secular state was seen as a group of "non-believers" looking to make the world a place that has no belief. Now, we have adopted a more rational approach: a nation that respects all religions equally, and does not discriminate based on religion. The adoption of secularism at the state level seems to now be a very pragmatic move that many have made. Why? Thanks to the countless lives lost due to misunderstandings between people of different religions. From the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War to the Maria Hertogh riots. People have seen religion as a way to divide themselves. They would fight for a lost cause if it was for their religion. To avoid such bloodshed, all people should be given the basic right of practicing their religion. The people of the world have seen this as being a good idea to the extent that they have made religious practice a human right.

We have made changes for the better that we are enjoying now, but how can we further improve our ways, and make the future an even brighter one? One way is to make the whole world see secular state as meaning the same thing. Religion should not be given a major role to play in politics. We could find ourselves in a sticky situation if we depend on religion as a campaigning method. What if the candidate elected by a majority of Christians, whose votes he campaigned for in Chuches, was found to be gay? What would the voters do? What would the country do? There would be chaos, with people wanting to overthrow the whole government! To avoid such situations and keep an open mind toward the governing of the state, we should disallow the use of religion as a campaigning chip.