RE: Atheists: If God suddenly made his presence known... would you shit bricks?
November 19, 2010 at 5:10 pm
(November 19, 2010 at 2:33 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote:Quote:Recently Muslims, Jews, and Christians are getting along better*, and would be doing even better if America could stop torturing/bombing Muslims for five minutes (we've made huge strides recently, but the rhetoric that extremists are putting out to recruit terrorists is that America is out to destroy Islam. With the pictures from Abu-Ghraib and America waging war against two Islamic countries, they can actually sell it pretty well, which has led to MASSIVE increases in terrorist attacks worldwide since the beginning of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars).
*Check out Just Peacemaking, it's a theory on how to make peace that all three Abrahamic faiths are getting ready to sign off on, which will be a huge step forward in peacemaking efforts in the middle east.
Sorry doesnt work that way, the closer religions are to the same myths the harder they fight.
Catholics and protestants are almost the same religion and come from the same root religion judaism. See how that worked out.
They all hate each other and millions have died because of it.
No one seems to ruck with the budhists and when hindus ruck with muslims its over land not religion.
and look at the sunni and shia muslims their scraps are the bloodiest of all.
I have no idea why its the small differences that cause the biggest spats, but it seems to be fundamental to religions.
Yes my dear friend, I hear this sentiment echoed far too often. There have been many in history that have used there ideas about God as a pretext to feeling superior and putting down and dehumanizing others. But there is another side to this:
"They all hate each other" is a bit too much of a ubiquitous statement. I don't hate Jews or Muslims, and none of the people within my particular theology do either. I actually met a Rabbi that I greatly admire and who I agreed with enormously. As for Catholics, my dear, sweet grandmother is Catholic, are you saying that I as a protestant hate my own grandmother? As for war being fundamental to religion, what about the Anabaptists? They've been an entirely pacifist movement since they were created. Also, I think reading the "Wars of Religion" as primarily wars about the differences between Catholic and Protestant is really misreading history. Especially considering that during the "Wars of Religion" Protestants regularly warred against Protestants, Catholics against Catholics, and Catholics and Protestants allied at one point to beat up a bunch of Protestants. Clearly these aren't well defined teams. So while the conflicts didn't match up very well with what Christian team each country was on, the conflicts lined up perfectly with what was politically advantageous for the ruler of each country. (There's a difference between cause and pretext).
One more important point about conflict being "fundamental to religion" is that there is a tri-faith effort towards creating peace that has reached a consensus. Key scholars from Christianity, Judaism, and Islam got together and created a document outlining how they all agree to work towards peace, and they have chosen ten, effective steps towards making that happen. The fact is, it's already working. You remember the war the United States had with Syria a couple years back? No? That's right, because it was prevented by peacemakers (this one didn't get a lot of media attention but Cheney was pushing for the war BIG TIME and it would have torn the middle east apart). So, far from causing conflict, these three faiths have gotten together and decided to cooperate towards making peace. Obama quoted Just Peacemaking theory like, a dozen times in his Nobel Prize speech, so this is something that is catching on.
So my friend, assuming that religions always cause conflicts, without reading about a major, worldwide, tri-faith, movement towards peace that involves leaders representing the majority of Abrahamic believers on earth is sort of an oversight. Please read up on Just Peacemaking: http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr214.html and http://documents.fuller.edu/sot/faculty/...aking.html
Lastly my friend, you must always resist the temptation to broadly categorize those different than you. Saying that those from closely related "myths" fight the hardest is categorizing all the Abrahamic believers as warmongers, and that is a racist stereotype*. I think it is this drive to reduce people to a single category that creates war, not faith. Clearly I don't believe in war, neither does a large portion of the Abrahamic community. So there a millions and millions of us that don't fit your stereotype, because we believe our faith teaches us a way of peace, not war. I know that this long history of conflict and indifference from many in the supposed "Christian" tradition has made many people bitter, and the Church has a lot to apologize for, but we have today. If we lose hope that the future can be a more peaceful world, then we have already lost tomorrow. That's why I believe that there is hope in this moment to sow the seeds of peace and equality in the world. We've already come so far, why should we stop now? Things like this new-found cooperation between the three Abrahamic faiths show us that we can use our faith to bring about peace for our children. They also show us that almost any difference can be overcome. That's why I call you "my friend." Clearly you see there has been more than enough hatred in this world, and so do I. So I see you as my comrade, and I hope that we can all agree that the most important thing is not to argue about why there is so much war and injustice, but to do what we can to stop it. For me, my faith gives me the energy to reach out in love to all people, for you it may be your sense of humanity. Either way, if we can agree to work together despite our differences then we are all friends and part of the same family.
Be blessed, my friend.
*
