POL POT, STALIN, HITLER, OSAMA BIN LADEN and many others are on our 'evil' list.
Yet these people did not do what they did on their own. In fact it would seem they didn't do it at all. Others did it for them.
People like you and me. People like our neighbours. People like out parents, grandparents, children, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, friends, teachers, doctors.
None of the crimes these men are known for could have happened without the compliance of ordinary people.
The millions of disabled, homosexual and Jewish people killed during the Holocaust were killed by ordinary people. People like you and like me.
We find that idea far too scary to face so we pour all our fear and hatred onto one person and thereby excuse the rest of us.
It also enables us to carry on hating. To carry on discriminating. It enables us to be racist and homophobic. We tell ourselves we are not evil like Hitler, we wouldn't send people to death camps so it is okay for us to hate those who are different.
It was people, ordinary people, who decided that homosexual survivors of the Holocaust were not entitled to any form of help or compensation because they 'deserved' it. It seems the killing of six million people didn't teach anyone anything.
Look at the world today. You'd think the Holocaust never happened for all that was learned from it. The hatred still abounds on all sides, both victim and oppressor giving out hatred, in fact it has become difficult to tell them apart. We expect peace but not at the cost of giving up our hatred.
We discriminate against our our kind. Some of us are not black enough, gay enough, Jewish enough, man enough, woman enough.
We think in terms of separation and we call it good. We label each other in order to be separate. We cordon off bits of the planet and call it ours and prevent others from entering. We call them different. We even say they are not human like us.
We hold religious ideas that separate us. We say those who don't believe as we do are wicked and destined for hell or non existence. We think it our right to force our ways on to others.
All that separates all of us is our beliefs. Our beliefs are only ideas that we have. They are not TRUTH. No one knows what that is. Objective Truth is not attainable and no one, but no one, knows what that is, no matter how vociferous they may be. All we have is ideas. Those ideas may approximate Truth but that is all they can do. How do we know if they do? I'd have thought that the first rule would be 'how much harm' does this idea cause? Most of our ideas would have to be ditched if we thought about that seriously.
No matter how strongly you believe something, it is still just an idea, not TRUTH.
Yes, we can know some mathematical and scientific truths but we don't know them all.
No one knows the whys and wherefores of our existence. Instead we have stories about how we got here and why we are here and where we are going. Whether our idea is science based or spiritually based, it is still just an idea because none of us knows.
We mostly, not completely, believe what we believe because of how we FEEL. Fear is usually at the root of what we decide to believe or not to believe. Certainly most religious teaching is based upon fear no matter what anyone says to the contrary. They will argue that their God is a God of Love but the He will destroy disbelievers! They don't see the inconsistency in that. Nor the wickedness. Nor the sheer and utter pain of and sadness of it.
We too often believe what others believe because we want to belong. We don't want to be ostracised, left out, or rejected. Thinking like this ultimately leads to self destruction and misery. Misery for others too who suffer the results of your fear.
WE CANNOT LIVE AND NOT AFFECT OTHERS.
I have no trust for anyone whose God would destroy them if they did not believe because I cannot trust their motives. Are they acting from true compassion and love or from fear? It must be from fear, it cannot be from anything else. If they believe their God will smite them for not believing, then their actions are fear based. Look at the world. This was well illustrated to me when a missionary was asked why she worked in such dire conditions, for people is such great need. Her reply was that she did for 'her god'. In other words she was was acting purely out of fear for her own safety and not for the love of those she was supposed to be helping. I think, that even if not obvious, this counterfeit 'love' will show itself in the results of her 'help'.
I was truly shocked to hear her words. I really, naively, expected her to say she did it because she couldn't bear to see these people suffering and she felt compelled to relieve where she could. I was stunned by her selfish, rather than selfless, response.
In the end we all experience the consequences of our beliefs and the actions they engender. We cannot escape these consequences. The good ones nor the bad ones.
To suggest that someone else already 'paid' for our mistakes is a source of much wickedness and pain. It clearly isn't true for one thing. If it were then the believers would all be happy and well and never ever suffer anything negative. The fact they do shows this to be a lie. It also enables people to act in harmful ways towards others in the belief that they are right and if they are not, well they won't suffer the consequences because they have been 'saved'.
Our beliefs can destroy people. even if we did not pick up the knife, the gun, the rope, by believing that others were 'less than us' we were a part of their destruction as surely as if we did it ourselves.
The widespread belief that human beings are bad at core results in the world we live in. Nothing has been learned from history. Nothing. We still, on the whole, try to force out ideas upon others.
We live with the consequences.
5 comments:
An excellent post, Colin, though I'd take issue with just one aspect, which is that many pagans believe that the deity/deities entrust us with the responsibility of looking after the planet and each other. Within my own path there is the law of threefold return, which basically says that whatever you do to others you get back three times (think of pointing a finger at someone - you have three fingers pointing at you). This neatly coincides with my hippy belief that you don't return favours, you pass them on, as well as making me think very carefully before doing anything malicious. I end up deciding that it's not worth while! Which is not to say that I'm a walkover: self defence is not a problem.
I believe that everyone is basically good until they prove otherwise. "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you." There is no place in my life for people who have abused my trust more than once - once might be a mistake, twice is goodbye.
Love your post, I don't judge people, I accept them as the show themselves to me. I don't care what your religion is, your sexual persuasion or your politics. As long as you are honest, that is all I ask. My response to those who hurt others is - what goes around comes around - and they will get theirs in the end. We are all one family, 99.9% of our DNA is exactly the same, the .1% is what makes us unique, that should be celebrated not discouraged. Until we learn to love unconditionally, we will never be truly human.
>>>>>counterfeit 'love'<<<<<
an excellent description
hugs
Claire
I really don't understand why religion causes so much trouble. My mother was raised Catholic, my father was raised Muslim, and my husband is a Jew. I don't adhere to any organized religion, although I do believe in what I think of as God. Religion is a creation of man, not God. All of the monotheistic religions teach that there is only one God. So do they not understand that they are all praying to the same one?
And regardless of what religion a person belongs to or where he or she worships, or doesn't, it seems obvious to me that we should all do our best to DO good and BE good while we are here, whatever may come next. We are all part of the same whole; we are all better off when we are all better off. If I am cruel, I get nothing from it, and give only pain. If I am kind, I may get nothing from it, but it also costs me nothing and gives someone else pleasure. So I've increased the total happiness in the world. Why wouldn't I want to do that?
As for the nature of humans, I can't imagine anyone looking at a newborn baby and thinking "you are evil." As a mother, this strikes me as so completely impossible that I can't credit anyone truly believing it. Each of us comes into the world perfect, however we are. It is only the way others view us that changes that. We damage each other carelessly or deliberately, and that creates evil. But we all start out good and beautiful and perfect, and I don't believe that is ever completely destroyed, even in the most evil of people. There is always some seed of good left; always the chance for redemption.
Go ahead now; call me a Liberal!
I, too, don't understand why religion causes so much trouble, but it does. There's no way to change the minds of many religious people. Not all are this way.
What drives me wild is when "religious" person says, "It's the word of God. We MUST follow the word of God to the letter." Then, these people go on out and completely ignore what doesn't suit them.
A very benign example is in a family I know and love very much. They are members of a fundamentalist Christian group and they do try not to be judgemental (although that's impossible, given their beliefs). Anyway, they feel they follow the "true Word of God" (read, King James Bible) to the best of their ability. In their church, there is singing, but no instruments are allowed. This I do not understand. It is clearly written in Psalms 33, 57, 81 (and others) to make a joyful noise unto the Lord with singing, psaltery, timbrel and on an on.
This has nothing to do with abuse, but is a point - religious zealots will pick and choose which points they wish to believe in, whether they be Christians, Muslims, Jews ...
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