A rchive Date
[ 11-10-2001 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[Stop twisting religion to justify hate
By LAURIE MUSTARD - Winnipeg Sun
October 11, 2001
As the wars and the killing of innocents continue here on Earth, you wonder what has to happen to finally make this stop. How many wars have there been since "the war to end all wars," whichever one that was? There's never a day on Earth when war isn't being waged somewhere.
Such a waste of human potential. We're all capable of so much better. Listening to John Lennon's Imagine a couple of days ago, really got me thinking.
In the remote chance you might need a reminder of the lyrics, here are the first couple of verses:
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today ...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
No religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace ...
Y'know he really nailed it with the religion thing. Tell you what I don't understand about religion. If there's truly just one God, why are there so many interpretations, so many versions of who this divine being is supposed to be?
Now I'm not saying I don't believe in God, or knock the merits of religion. I'm very spiritual in my own way. Life just seems too complex to have been an accident. But think of the deaths that could have been prevented over time if the one omnipotent God, if indeed there is one, had stepped forward and proved it beyond all shadow of a doubt. Like, if Jesus truly is the son of God, he should have waited till the days of mass media to make his appearance, and delivered his message "live." Not trusted humans to spread the word. Ever told a story, then been amazed at how distorted it was after going through a few people? Maybe it was a timing thing.
When religious differences get perverted and used in an evil way as they were in the recent terrorist attacks in the U.S., the whole notion of what faith and the guidance of religion are supposed to be all about gets distorted to the absurd.
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
God is not on the side of people who murder 6,000 innocent people, and insist it's their right to kill even more. And although I think God may bless many in America, He/She also blesses the innocent people of Afghanistan, and Palestine, Israel, Iraq and so on. I just can't see the real God picking sides.
It's time for people to start taking responsibility for the mess here on Earth, and stop using primitive interpretations of "God's will" to justify insanity people perpetuate. We insult the notion of a divine, loving creator.
Look at Ireland. Is anything more ludicrous than people of one nation teaching children to hate and kill based on a Protestant-Catholic split? Love-worship of a true God should unite, rather than divide us.
So maybe till we can learn how to handle the concept of religion with the dignity and compassion an enlightened interpretation of God deserves, maybe Lennon's right. No religion too. Maybe we haven't reached that level of sophistication yet.
And what if God/Satan/heaven/hell have all been born out of mankind's need to look for security and knowledge beyond that which our parents and conventional wisdom have to offer? What if the millions of deaths over the centuries are rooted in fiction?
I do believe in a greater power of some sort, not my god as opposed to your god, but something. Who or what, I really don't know.
But I do know this, I'm going to go home and pray to that God tonight, for the people of America, of Afghanistan, for mankind. We obviously need some sort of divine help to achieve John Lennon's goal of a brotherhood of man, because we certainly don't seem capable of getting there on our own.
Laurie Mustard can be reached by phone at 632-2749, by fax at 632-4250, or e-mail at lmustard@wpgsun.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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