A long read but worth it.
After reading I am curious of peoples thoughts.
It is true, believing awful things about God can lead people to do awful things to others, to themselves, and to our world.
It is also true that people are animals…in the strictest, non-pejorative, scientific sense of that word. And as such, our instinct to survive at any and all cost is a powerful force, a force that can lead us to do awful things to others, to ourselves, and to our world.
The latter truth regarding our basic instinct for survival is universal; the former truth regarding religion gone wrong, though pervasive, is not universal. But when the latter is exposed to the former, when the lesser angels of our animal instincts are inflamed by religious narcissism and spiritual fear…well, our capacity for awfulness grows exponentially.
Again this morning, I awoke to more news of this terrible collision. More specifically, I awoke to the tragically ongoing story regarding the devastating collision of three Abrahamic religions, a collision centered geographically in the Middle East…and spiritually at the unguarded intersection of our specie’s most base quest for resources.
And I am reminded…
The human quest for true mutuality, to genuinely love others as we love ourselves, to caringly and equitably distribute life’s resources…
This is a great enough challenge to be faced considering we are facing it within the context of our intense animalistic fears of scarcity, competition, deprivation, suffering, and death. To add the component of a God who supposedly favors one person or religion or race or nation above all others is beyond devastating; it is abusive. In other words, though religion does not create these original fears, it can and all too often does compound them.
Furthermore, the aforementioned devastation and abuse is not lessened by the sincerity of those who believe these awful things about God and our world. As a matter of fact, it may be just the opposite — sincerity and conviction may only make things worse.
To that end…
To become aware and begin to admit, even if in one’s own mind and heart, the conspicuously convenient nature of believing in a God who chooses sides and plays favorites…this is very well one of the the most Divine things we humans can do, and one of our most thoughtful, meaningful attempts at theology, spirituality, and religion.
So now, for a little while this morning, I will take leave from news of Gaza, Hamas, and Israel, of Ukraine and Russia, of Sudan, Darfur, and a million refugees. Though not far from mind, I will leave them for a few hours to spend time with one more family…a family painfully divided by religion, a family torn apart by rigid demands for common belief, a family suffering due impossible requirements for heaven’s entrance later and familial support now…more people stumbling and clamoring painfully for resources they sincerely yet wrongly believe to be limited by God, people suffering and dying not from bullets and missiles made of metal but those made of scripture and sacrament.
Alas, in our misguided efforts to avoid a future Hell, we continue to unwittingly create a very present one.
Surely there is a better way to be animal, a better way to be human, a better way to think about God.
After reading I am curious of peoples thoughts.
It is true, believing awful things about God can lead people to do awful things to others, to themselves, and to our world.
It is also true that people are animals…in the strictest, non-pejorative, scientific sense of that word. And as such, our instinct to survive at any and all cost is a powerful force, a force that can lead us to do awful things to others, to ourselves, and to our world.
The latter truth regarding our basic instinct for survival is universal; the former truth regarding religion gone wrong, though pervasive, is not universal. But when the latter is exposed to the former, when the lesser angels of our animal instincts are inflamed by religious narcissism and spiritual fear…well, our capacity for awfulness grows exponentially.
Again this morning, I awoke to more news of this terrible collision. More specifically, I awoke to the tragically ongoing story regarding the devastating collision of three Abrahamic religions, a collision centered geographically in the Middle East…and spiritually at the unguarded intersection of our specie’s most base quest for resources.
And I am reminded…
The human quest for true mutuality, to genuinely love others as we love ourselves, to caringly and equitably distribute life’s resources…
This is a great enough challenge to be faced considering we are facing it within the context of our intense animalistic fears of scarcity, competition, deprivation, suffering, and death. To add the component of a God who supposedly favors one person or religion or race or nation above all others is beyond devastating; it is abusive. In other words, though religion does not create these original fears, it can and all too often does compound them.
Furthermore, the aforementioned devastation and abuse is not lessened by the sincerity of those who believe these awful things about God and our world. As a matter of fact, it may be just the opposite — sincerity and conviction may only make things worse.
To that end…
To become aware and begin to admit, even if in one’s own mind and heart, the conspicuously convenient nature of believing in a God who chooses sides and plays favorites…this is very well one of the the most Divine things we humans can do, and one of our most thoughtful, meaningful attempts at theology, spirituality, and religion.
So now, for a little while this morning, I will take leave from news of Gaza, Hamas, and Israel, of Ukraine and Russia, of Sudan, Darfur, and a million refugees. Though not far from mind, I will leave them for a few hours to spend time with one more family…a family painfully divided by religion, a family torn apart by rigid demands for common belief, a family suffering due impossible requirements for heaven’s entrance later and familial support now…more people stumbling and clamoring painfully for resources they sincerely yet wrongly believe to be limited by God, people suffering and dying not from bullets and missiles made of metal but those made of scripture and sacrament.
Alas, in our misguided efforts to avoid a future Hell, we continue to unwittingly create a very present one.
Surely there is a better way to be animal, a better way to be human, a better way to think about God.
