694 More on God, Facts and Belief, part 4
The recent shooting in the USA elicited a curious response within me ... Religion. This is not to say that I thought the deed was
perpetrated in the name of a religion; but what I emphatically say is that
religion breeds the intolerance that may bring about acts of violence (indeed not just physical violence, but also mental violence - sometimes just as detrimental) against others, especially minorities … the very fabric of religions are the intolerant
dogmas believers are brainwashed into believing.
Believe in what? In the most
outrageous fantasies, miracles, unlikelihoods and lies. This is the breeding
ground for the narrow-mindedness that may lead to outbursts against others of any description, such as homosexuals.
What interests me in this context is
the extent to which otherwise intelligent people foster the religious
environment of delusion and lies. Priests, imams, rabbis, other religious
leaders as well as religiously inclined political leaders uphold the fallacy
that what they do is either condoned by or in the name of God.
A small portion of the world’s
population is atheist; most people - some eighty five percent - follow one
religion or another. They profess to “believe”. As I said above, what interests
me is the extent to which intelligent people truly “believe”. They may be
societal leaders … in commerce, science, politics, the arts, on a community
level and in the established faiths; but opinion-makers nonetheless.
So let’s look at the example of
Christianity: Do they - intelligent Christians - truly believe that there is a God in heaven who guides them on earth, that Jesus Christ is their saviour, who was His son, born of a
virgin, walked on water, performed miracles and arose from the dead ... that - as
Bob Ellis said:
“… the earth was six thousand years old;
that every syllable of the Bible was true and inspired by God Himself; that the
angels wept at every lustful midnight thought I had; that only 144,000 would in
the End Time stand on the Sea of Glass and sing Hosanna to the Almighty forever
while billions of lesser sinners writhed and screamed and vainly pleaded in a
Lake of Fire for billions and billions of years …”
I wager they don’t. I think a lot of
stout Christians who regularly go to church and who want to be seen as upright
community leaders, may well not believe the rubbish forwarded by the ecclesiastical
hierarchies. Here is a quote from my GOD 4 essay:
A 45 year old regular church-goer said
“when I was in my teens I was called to confirm my belief in a traditional God,
the virgin birth and the resurrection of Christ. I said to the minister ‘I just
think this is all rubbish’ and he replied ... ‘well, you know, I think you’re
right.’”
Followers of religions
accept delusions and lies are a part of the fabric of their society ... as
opposed to secularists, humanists, sceptics and freethinkers, who believe
not only in compassion and forgiveness but also in diversity of thought and truth ... while
adhering to the principle of uncertainty, where every belief is subject
to rigorous scrutiny.
So this then is my point: As a rational, scientifically oriented humanist and non-believer of scurrilous beliefs and faiths, a person is very much less inclined to find themselves pushed into a corner where they feel the need to defend their position of a strongly held conviction with violence ... against believers in a different world view.
Once freed of irrational religious beliefs one has the capacity to embrace others regardless of their beliefs. For further reading on this subject go to any of my Krishnamurti blogs. I have an essay WHAT I BELIEVE in my book with no title, instead three definitions for the term en.light.en.ment
As a final comment about what is regarded a God-fearing country, may I say this ... One week ago in Orlando, Florida, USA, forty nine people were shot and killed, and many more injured. The gun-man's photo is plastered all over the media and in my newspaper the photo of every single victim was reproduced last week. Yet, in the US thirty five to forty thousand people are killed by guns every year; that is about one hundred a day ... so the death toll at Orlando was approximately half the amount of people killed that day in the USA. One of their God's commandments is: Do Not Kill. Just saying.