RELIGIOUS BELIEFS KILLED 12 OF US IN PARIS

Another mass murder by religious inspired crazies happened this morning in Paris. Although the attention is on the circumstances of the attack and the hunt to find the perpetrators, perhaps the attention should be on the reason people do such things. The reason has been around for 150,000 years and we do not seem to be able to get a handle on it. Like a badly miss behaving child, we should try to understand why the bad behavior to prevent it from happening again and disciple that child if punishment is appropriate.

The fundamental problem seems to be “fanatical” religious belief. Of course, fanatical means a person is obsessively concerned with something, and as a result, is filled with excessive and single-minded zeal. As a society, we might be well served to add the phrase that fanaticism is something we see in others but never see in ourselves.

There is always a question concerning where the line is drawn between rational and fanatical behavior. Our mind is focuses on religion in the context of this post but how many of you are prepared to die for your country, defending your family, or in the headline news lately, defending your rights to own a gun? In the religious context, how many of you would be prepared to fight to the death to protect your belief in God. Do I have to define “God” before you answer this question? Regardless of how I define “God, do not expect a sincere answer from the man on the street. Ask Mike Huckabee (Political leader) or Pat Robertson (religious leader) if they would give their lives in defense of God? Do I have to mention that Pat Robertson who claims to be rational thinks, we should “Beat non-religious kids on Christmas until they appreciate ‘blessings of discipline.” What must you do to prove that you would in fact give your life in defense of your “God”, your country, or whatever? The answer is as simple as it is scary.

Perhaps we should go back to the fundamental problem, which why do we believe in any of these things used as examples of beliefs we find worth holding and if so to what degree do we hold them? In the Case in Paris, 12 people died because of a religious motive, a belief in Allah. It is true that more and more people avow their atheism, which probably means there are many people who are atheists, but will not admit it. On the other hand, there are those who claim to be atheists but are not. I often think about two scientists who claim to be Jewish atheists—how is it possible to be a Christian, Jewish, or Muslim atheist.

My point is that many things we believe in seem to be innate, that is bestial, such as territorial instinct. We as a society have learned how to modify that particularly instinct with such things as respect for countries sovereignty, property lines, and etcetera. In contrast to the spirit of survival, which is an innate sense; however, I cannot imagine that religion of any kind is innate. Religion is what grew up around the innate sense of survival; it is learned; therefore, we can dominate it—we can change what we learn. In fact, it is important that we dominate what it is that is killing us.   

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