Am I faithless?

Now important questions for me are, “Where is God? Is God “up there”? Only in a House of God – Church, Temple or Mosque? Or is God (as I strongly suspect) everywhere?”

If God is everywhere why do I need a priest (in my case – I was baptized into the Anglican church), or Rabbi or Imam, to tell me what to do and how to behave? Most of these people would have received “instruction” about the dogma and the form of their belief system from their specific scriptures or Holy Books. This is religion.

But religion, in my understanding, is not the same as knowledge of God. Certainly not the same as spirituality, which, I have always presumed is the aim of worshipping God.

It may be taken as a given that I have a belief in a Higher Power, or source of Life. Call this God, or by whatever name you may choose. It doesn’t really matter. I really don’t think that God would care.

But have I “Faith”? According to Hebrews 11.1 (King James English Bible):-

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”.  

I may hope for things, or events to happen or not happen, but does God “look” at me or “listen” to me and agree or disagree? Really?

As the poet William Ernest Henley wrote:

            “I am the master of my fate;

             I am captain of my soul”.

The bit I just fail to understand is this.  Why do we humans, why do we need to reduce God the level of being human? Why call God a “Him”? Why a male? Then, of course being a male and “human” we imbue “Him” with human traits and the need to propitiate “Him”; try to cajole “Him”; ask “Him” for favours; bribe “Him” with sacrifices, often burnt so that the smoke will rise to “His” nostrils (and presumably please “Him”). If God is everywhere why would he need this - how would this please him? Anyway, how would anyone know?

God, in my understanding is Love. Pure love. Now this does not fit with the public image of greed and lust for power and control prevalent in various, most probably all  religious orders, uncovered by various investigations in many countries. Lust – in its most virulent form – sexual lust for minor children; control, through physical and emotional abuse – is now known to be perpetrated by some preachers of “faith” in all religions.

And this is done in the name of God?

It has been truly said that, “no soul was ever saved by hate. No truth was ever proved by violence. No redemption was ever brought by a holy war. No religion ever won the administration of the world by its capacity to inflict suffering on it enemies (re: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks).”

If Jews, Muslims and Christians worship the same God; if these “believers” read from Holy Books that espouse the same principles of Love, Justice and Tolerance; if these “believers” each invoke God’s aid against the other; if these “believers” cannot resolve their differences without the most extreme violence, then religion (any religion) cannot form the basis for a sustainable social order.

To be truly humanitarian it is essential for any person or group to involve themselves in that most difficult of imaginative exercises – role reversal. Put yourself  (or your group) in the place of the person (or group) that you despise, denigrate or simply do not understand.

It is a human failing, I believe, when people (particularly politicians and religious orders) are threatened with internal discord, to focus on, even invent, some external threat. This is the history of the “scapegoat”. Projecting all your failings onto someone else – and then blame them for your troubles. Killing the scapegoat is then seen, in the eyes of those involved, as justified. It is a form of “sacrifice” and deflects attention away from any internal violence that may destroy the group or people concerned. For centuries the Jews have suffered under this “scapegoat” label. Blame the Jews for everything – the most horrendous example occurred in the 1930s in Nazi Germany. But Jews are not the only scapegoats. Currently, in the eyes of some, anyone who is not a “true believer” is “not worthy in the eyes of God”. Apparently. 

According to the history of the three religions – Christianity, Judaism and Islam – all people are children of Abraham. By whose understanding then does God want his followers to kill for His sake; to engage in “Holy” war for His sake; to engage in human “sacrifice” for His sake; to hate and terrorise “unbelievers” for His sake? Such activity is an obscene distortion of everything that I, for one, was ever taught. 

It is the requirement of all, or so I believe, to overcome any “evil” tendencies within us and learn that love is the greatest power of all. This, in my understanding, is the only “message” that is worth listening to. That and the Golden Rule – “only do to others what you would like done to you”. There are no viable alternatives.

But if I know this – that I am not perfect and that I have a negative (or bad) side to my character as well as a good side, why do I need a priest, or imam or rabbi reading from a “Holy” book to tell me? Anyway how would this person know what troubles I’ve experienced or what my shortcomings are, or how to redress them? 

It seems to me that the priests, rabbis or imams should confront their own shortcomings. To quote from the Bible (it has its uses!):  “First, remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye”(Matthew 7:5). 

So am I faithless?

The difference between Ethics and Religion

I know I have written about this before but it is a very good question and today an ever more important one. They are, however, two quite different things. To me the very basis of ethics is the “golden rule”:– Only do to others what you would like them to do to you.

All religions (repeat all religions) have this written somewhere in their “Book” or “Books”. But to me the words – written and book – are the problem with religions. The “words” were written by human beings and are interpreted by human beings, no matter how Holy, or Divine, or educated, or devout they may be, it will still be their writing and their interpretation of what they heard or saw. And people, all people, religious or otherwise will interpret what they see and hear through the filter of their life experiences. It cannot be otherwise. Remember that not one (not one), not Buddha, Jesus or Mohammad, ever wrote anything down. There is some dispute as to whether or not they were even literate. Everything that we know about them and their teachings was written by their followers – sometimes many years later.

People have opinions based on their life experience, education and current circumstances. This, most certainly, colours what they do and say – also what they write.

And there is a difference between Religion and Spirituality. Religions, in my understanding are supposed to give guidance to followers, to understand how to get closer to God (or Allah, or Yahweh, or the Great Artificer, or whatever name you give to the Almighty). In other-words how to become a better person and (possibly) more spiritual. If this were not so, why follow any religion?

There are over 7 billion people on earth at present. There are, I believe 72 Jewish sects or interpretations or schools of teaching; there are 3 sects in Islam with, as far as I can determine, 73 different basic interpretations or schools of teaching; there is dispute about how many Christian denominations, sects or schools of teaching there are – a quite astonishing figure of about 20 000 (twenty thousand) has been quoted; there are 5 basic divisions in Buddhism with many difference interpretations or schools of teaching; Hinduism – the oldest surviving religion in the world, has hundreds of different interpretations of the various teachings (I am unable to determine how many).

But (with the exception of Buddhism) they all claim to worship God - a Supreme Being (presumably the same one).

There are so many religions and interpretations because we are all different, with different expectations and views on life. We are not clones. People will always try to find some form of worship that is close to their way of thinking, something that satisfies them and brings them comfort and peace.

Another problem is that religions (all religions) give power to the leaders or teachers. A classic example is the Catholic Church, which is a vastly wealthy organization, and the Pope (an elected leader) wields immense power in many areas.

Power always brings corruption and abuse of power (as Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Baronet, famously wrote, “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”). And with human beings, fickle as they are, this always has been and always will be, even with checks and balances. Corruption is not ethical. People in power will always try and use it for their own benefit or to make them seem “better” in their own estimation.

There is, and always has been, abuse (sexual and physical) of women and children in all religions – Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Priestly abuse and paedophilia are oxymorons. They should not go together, but they often do, unfortunately.

This is why, in my understanding, there is a difference between Ethics and Religion even though all religions have written somewhere:- Only do to others what you would like them to do to you.

And again, that question of spirituality. This I cannot answer. But I know that religiosity is not the same as spirituality. Never was.

If anyone is interested I was born into a not very devout family – Church of England. 

Can anyone insult God?

Remember my one loyal reader, Archie? Well he has asked me real questions about two very important matters:-

1.      Can anyone insult God?

2.      The blight cast by the so called Islamic State or Daesh?

The question is, can anyone or anything insult God? Certainly one can insult someone’s belief in God and they may be rightfully offended. We can offend each other. But insult the Creator of all things? I doubt that He would consider the scribbling of, say, someone like myself as anything but a childish prank – that is if what I write sufficiently interested such an August Being. We are his children after all.

How could anything I say or write insult the Almighty? The very idea that the Great Artificer, the maker of all things; The Progenitor of Mankind; The Source of All; The Origin of all that shall happen, that is all things –Time, and the Eternal Present, Fame, Fortune, Speech, Memory, Intellect, Constancy and Forgiveness; the very idea that puny me may be guilty of insulting such an August Power and that such a One should be at all concerned is beyond, certainly, my comprehension. That is if such a Supreme Power is bothered with it at all. But insulted? Never!

As I say I may be guilty (if that is the correct word to use) of possibly insulting someone’s idea or belief in God. This has apparently happened to some poor sod in Saudi Arabia, one Raef Badawi who is to receive 1000 lashes for insulting Islam! Not God but Islam! He apparently wrote a Blog criticising the Saudi Religious Police.

Now in relation to this barbaric concept of flogging – how, in the name of the Creator, how will flogging this poor man to death (which is what 1000 lashes will do) make him a better Muslim and how would such punishment please the Creator of all things??

Certainly such action insults MY idea of God and offends me!!

Regarding the Saudi Religious Police (Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice) – what Charter or Law do they claim to uphold and enforce? Sharia Law is the answer. What are their qualifications? And who are they anyway? Is this “Police Force”  being staffed by "ex-convicts whose only job qualification was that they had memorized the Qur'an in order to reduce their sentences" as has been claimed?

And who checks the checkers? Who oversees the activities of such a “virtuous” Committee?

They are merely officers of the State – the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – no more and no less.

I wonder what the Creator of All Things would think of that? Such activities just diminish the perpetrators and diminish Saudi Arabia and, most importantly, diminish Islam in the eyes of many “non-believers”. Who is now insulting and offending whom?

More than anything else – one needs to reflect on whether the World is a better place because of the activities of the “Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice”?

The next question related to the obscene and profane assemblage of people calling themselves the Islamic State or as they are pejoratively known, Daesh.   

When will the Saudi’s or in fact any “strict” Muslim realise that there has to be a division between religion, the law and the legislator? I am not questioning what Mohammad said or did – he never wrote anything down. In fact it has been suggested that he was illiterate - as, probably, was Jesus. Not that I set much store by this. Many great and wonderful people are not well educated and Islam is one of the great religions.

My concerns are about what we (non-Muslims) are supposed to think about this profanity calling itself a Caliphate? My concerns are about what they want us (non-Muslims) to agree to – under intense coercion?

I cannot conceive that anything the Daesh do, or believe in, is spiritual in nature. It is profane, pure and simple. As I understand it, according to their avowed intention, every non-Muslim must convert to Islam or be killed or enslaved. Would not God, the Creator of all things – and all people - be insulted and offended by this?

They (the Daesh) want us, non-Muslims, to tolerate them and allow them to exist, but they do not tolerate us.

It is worth recalling that whenever social conditions – as promoted by Daesh – develop on a large scale the road to tyranny is wide open and the freedom of the individual turns into physical slavery – individual choices or decisions are met with the harshest punishments. Since tyranny, by its very nature, is immoral and ruthless, it has the freedom to indulge in any method of oppression it chooses. 

The real problem arises when such a tyrannous assemblage is in conflict with those people and those States which still recognise the rights of the individual. In such situations the rights of individuals is eroded by the State to counteract the amoral conduct of tyranny which it cannot defeat without availing itself of the same methods used by its opponents.

The inherent danger in this course of action lies in the strong possibility of the States which recognise individual rights being “infected” in this manner. This is compounded when decisive importance is attached to large numbers and statistical values.  Thus the individual is “seduced” by the policies of the State –“are you with us or against us?” Free opinion is stifled and moral decisions ruthlessly suppressed on the (false) plea that the end justifies the means – “whatever it takes” – no matter how dishonourable or illegal the tactics.

Tyranny begets tyranny. God, if thoughts of God where ever in the minds of such people, is now banished. Power; control; money now consume them and a steep inclined plane is in place under the feet of the tyrannous which propel all involved lower and lower into ever more profane and despicable acts.

Thus am I insulted and my idea and belief in God is insulted and I am offended – deeply offended.

And what about God?

Why do we ignore Arab influence on the West?

Forgetting the influence of Islam and Arabic scholars on Western culture and demonising them is not very clever. We need to recall the fact that Christianity started in the Middle East – among the Semitic people (those very same people - Jews and Arabs that history now condemns) so why demonise them? They are part of us. If we complain that “they” think and do things differently from “us” remember that “we” think and do things differently from “them”! So who is right? And does it really matter?

The current rigidity of political agendas, media alignment or religious thinking – be it Islamic, Christian or Judaic and the rise of the fundamentalism,  is a strong indication of desperation and a lack of desire for change – even an inability to see the need for change. A “them or us” or the even  more divisive, “are you with us or against us” attitude is grounded in ideology, in ignorance and lacks common sense. This malicious talk gives rise to the false belief that “my” religion is better than yours – therefore yours is inferior to mine; therefore, by default, I am better than you. This is dangerous thinking and gives rise to many of the problem that beset the world today. What concerns me is the  injustice that this type thinking engenders which, unfortunately,  is prevalent everywhere.

What is the difference between extremists of whatever faith, Christian, Islamic or Jewish? There are none that I can see. All worship God – by that name or by any one of many “sacred” names. God is God, but they are all blind to the fact that life, in whatever form, is a dynamic process.

In the11^th century Pope Urban II promised Christians an “eternal” reward if they joined a crusade against the Muslims to help “restore” the Holy Land to Christianity!! I wonder where I have heard this before? Don’t forget that the current crop of Muslim clerics (some of whom advocate violence against the “great Satan” – America)  make the same promises for those who sacrifice their lives for the “cause”. Violence of any kind is the result of moral bankruptcy.

The 11^th Century Crusaders shouted “God wills it” as they attacked Arab fortifications – the current 21^st Century Muslim Jihadist shouts, “It is the will of Allah” as he detonates a bomb!

So what is new?

Did you know that about the year 960 AD the Arabs were performing successful cataract operations with sharpened fish bones; that their knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, agronomy and science in general was centuries ahead of the “West”? Similarly with their manufacturing skills and philosophical understanding – they were way ahead of us “Westies”.

At this same time in history Christian clerics where arguing about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin (I kid you not)!!

At this time in history (the 10^th Century) the favoured  “Western” form of justice was a trial by ordeal – a brutal and crude judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused was determined by subjecting them to an unpleasant, usually dangerous experiences. In some cases, the accused were considered innocent only if they survive the test or if their injuries healed.  At that period of history the Arabs had a complete legal system and while we might not agree with all aspects of the way it is interpreted and applied, it is still operating today.

Laws and institutions have to adapt with the developments in our understanding. As we become more enlightened in our thinking, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change according to circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times.  To do otherwise is to condemn our “civilised” society to remain forever under the regimen of our (possibly) less enlightened ancestors.  Fundamentalists, with their avowed intention to “go back to basics” and apply religious dogma according to a strict, literal, interpretation of the written word are a road block to this progress. This is possibly what has happened in the recent history of the Arabs and Islam and the Catholic Church.

There is also the fact that human activity will always – over a period of time – revert to the mean. By this I suggest that the swings from extreme left wing political views to extreme right wing political views will, over time, become more moderate and revert to the centre.

Over time the same will happen with any human activity. Corrupt authorities will give way to extreme puritanical regimes, which will in turn, over a period of years, change to a less extreme and more tolerant form of governance. But without a revolution (the Arab Spring?) or enlightened leadership this will take generations.

Rigid thought patterns and fundamentalism is the same however it is practiced. Really there is no difference – human nature is, after all, human  nature!!

(I am indebted to the author Jonathon Lyons  and his interesting book entitled  “The House of Wisdom” – subtitled ‘how the Arabs transformed Western Civilization’  which vastly increased my knowledge on this subject.)