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Beliefs And ToleranceBeliefs Should Unite Not DivideIs belief alone enough to condemn those who disagree with you? Is belief enough to kill those who refuse to accept your beliefs? Is belief in your religion enough for you to disparage all other religions, all other gods, all other beliefs? If your beliefs requires you to kill someone that converts to another religion then your beliefs need to examined. Just because a belief is religion-based doesn’t mean that belief should not conform to Earth-authorities, promote freedom of choice, or even be allowed to exist. If your beliefs allow you to use your sacred shrines as weapon depots and from which to fight an enemy, why should you expect others to respect your sacred places more than you do? Respect for a religion by people of another religion cannot be expected to exceed your own respect for your holy objects and scared shrines. While there is value in religious beliefs, there is no value in religious intolerance History tells us that religions don’t like competition. Religious leaders are as susceptible to the pull of power as anyone else. When their certitude transcends all reason, all logic, and all Earth-based authorities, that belief needs to be controlled. These leaders ability to be so sure of their self-righteousness , moral purity, and the certainty they are their deity’s voice on Earth leads to the temptation to act as that deity. A good example of the extremes and excesses of religious beliefs can be found in the Christian - Muslim competition. Each religion believes so strongly in their correctness that killing a believer of the other religion is or was deemed acceptable. In Christianity this form of religious intolerance has been moderated to some degree by the New Testament and by time. Religious tolerance gradually seeped into Christianity as the New Testament has become more popular than the Old testament. "An eye for an eye" and kill the unbelievers has been replaced with "Love thy neighbor". This transformation required over a thousand years of time plus excesses by the leaders of Christianity before reasonable people concluded that while the religion may be acceptable, its use and excesses were not. There are some in Christianity that long for the good old days of kingly power. For this reason, if Muslims do not find a way to moderate their religious beliefs and marginalize their fundamentalists so there is more tolerance toward Christians and unbelievers, Christian extremist and Islam extremist will soon clash. The result will be a religious war that will make the Crusades seem like a noisy block party. Can Muslims find the equivalent of their New Testament or will they continue with their apparent desire to convert the world, regardless of the method or the cost in human lives? This world has survived many bloody, religious wars but their weapons were very primitive in comparison to what is now available. One fairly small H-bomb can destroy a large city and millions of people in the blink of an eye. Some believe this destruction is necessary to bring about the second coming of Christ while other believe the destruction is necessary to purify this world. I am not really troubled by those who are willing to die for their beliefs but I am deeply troubled by those who are willing to kill those who do not or will not accept their beliefs. This kind of fanatical intolerance must be either redirected or destroyed, regardless of its source. Author: Don Miller
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2006 Articles |
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