Dear Friends,
It seems to me that the modern societal myth is to question all things religious. We are encouraged to question the tenets and the doctrine. We are told in detail the atrocities that our respective religions have visited upon the world. We are expected to believe that it is the religion that promulgates the atrocities. Not the men who actually perpetrated them.
All the worlds great religions have in common the human hearted belief that we must be good neighbors. That we must act righteously. (Which is simply that we must not hurt other people). We must be mindful of God, no matter his name.
What religions also have in common is the denunciation of war and violence. While Jesus was making the second covenant he said to a murderous mob “ Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” I think what he meant was, we all sin, yet hold others to a higher level of personal conduct than we hold ourselves. We are willing to stone to death someone whom we are no better than. Yet do it with no remorse. After all she was a harlot…
Mencius denounced war and chastised Barons that engaged in it. Buddha was a pacifist and in the Bagavaad Gita Arjuna laments the spilling of blood. An overriding theme of organized religion is that we must be as good a people as we can. That is a helpful message.
All people have an innate need for spirituality. We all have that need whether we acknowledge it or not. If that need is suppressed it manifests itself as something we make up. That is often a way to some negative outcome for ourselves and society. Wise people know and acknowledge this innate need and express it in some organized religion. Foolish people disregard this innate need and claim that they are enlightened. Then use Prozac and all manner of pharmaceuticals, hypnotists, physiologists, faith healers, and all other means to fill the hole that is within them.
Problems arise when someone from one religion believes that he or she must change the world to his or her religion. That if force is necessary then force will be used. When this happens, people, not religions are the bad actors. That bad people twist doctrine to fit their personal ambitions is not new or out of character for human beings. Especially those that crave power over others.
That these people exist is not in question but that innocent people are led astray by them is extremely disturbing. Innocent people that are convinced that the way to heaven is to commit some heinous crime are as much victims as those that are the aim of the crime. But most appalling to me is that the people who pull the trigger put their immortal soul at risk. In hopes of going to heaven. So that some evil person can then lower the lot of humanity to satiate his lust for power over others. That is true evil. To put someone’s ambition to improve the lot of man and serve the will of God to nefarious use.
I wonder why we are never asked to question the outcome or the atrocities that have been perpetrated by the unreligious. Communists and Socialists by name. They are atheists. Atheism is one of their tenets. It is written clearly in the Communist Manifesto. So when we are told in detail about some atrocity that was done by Catholics to Protestants four hundred years ago it might be interesting to point out that Communist atheists killed one hundred million people in the twentieth century. And that National Socialist atheists killed around sixty million people. Not all that long ago. So who is the real threat to the well being of Man? Those that wish to do good in the world or those that wish to do evil in the world, religious or not…
