We can think of evolution's attempts, the mutations that don't survive, as nature's way of exploring its many possibilities. And although many of these attempts may ultimately perish, they often leave traces in the new species they gave rise to before disappearing. Many historical and cultural processes seem to follow these same patterns. I refer, for example, to the hundreds of local Christian sects, many of them Gnostic, that preceded the rise of orthodox Christianity. They all existed simultaneously, some worshipping Christ, others Horus, others Mithra, and various other idols or gods. Any one of them could have triumphed, and many certainly left theological traces in the orthodox canon. But only the sect that eventually became the Church of Rome became a significant and enduring cultural force - perhaps because it had the political qualities demanded by the time, perhaps by mere chance. Hence, today only one model stands out, that of the traditional family - patriarchal, heterosexual, with no mixture of colors.

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It's precisely because we allowed ourselves to be fascinated by monotheism or faith in a simple and singular truth that the history of the West has been marred by intolerance and carnage, thus it is a history of crusades and holy wars, of inquisitions, guillotines, pogroms, and the Holocaust. Hitler's extermination machines were the most bestial embodiment of a surrender to super-rational mechanization and the type of bureaucratic and instrumental reason that produces it.

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By repressing the side of our experience that is rich in nuances and varieties, denying the validity of different ways of looking at things, including the intuitive and the rational, the cult of monotheistic unity served to paralyze and distort the capacity for multiplicity. The multiple became the obscure and tortured underground of modernity itself.

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It is high time to rid ourselves of the dogmatic shackles of religion. As John Stuart Mill said: "The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way. Unless individuals are left to live as they wish, civilization cannot progress; truth, lacking a free market of ideas, will not come to light; there will be no room for spontaneity, originality, genius, and mental energy, there will be no place for moral courage. Society will be crushed under the weight of 'collective mediocrity.'"

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True freedom lies in the ability to pursue our own good on our own terms. It's time to break free from dogmatic shackles and celebrate the richness of difference.

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Free, at last!