Religion and Violence

Religion and violence

Strother Martin is remembered for saying in Cool Hand Luke, “What we’ve got here is (a) failure to communicate.” So to eliminate that as much as possible, I offer the following definitions from Merriam Webster’s Dictionary:

Ignorance: “lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified.”

Stupidity: “state of being slow of mind given to unintelligent decisions or acts.” Einstein defined it as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Bigotry: “the state of being intolerantly devoted to one’s own opinions and prejudices.”

I offer the following observations: ignorance is curable with education and information; stupidity is terminal; bigotry comes in many forms, i.e. racial, gender, religious. I humbly admit to having been ignorant at times and needing help in overcoming bigoted opinions. I hope to avoid terminal stupidity.

To my point. Violence in defense of religion is ignorance, stupidity if continued, and bigotry if one insists on the “absolute truth” of their religion and blindly refuses to respect the integrity of others.

Judaism’s gift was a rejection of human sacrifice (Abraham/Isaac) and the profound insight of the Oneness of God, Oneness seen as communion, in Second Isaiah. Her followers too quickly returned to violence as the means of self-preservation.

The gift of Jesus of Nazareth was a call to return to that Oneness in love and compassion embodied in his announcement of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God. His followers misunderstood and quickly defined salvation as based on a human sacrifice demanded by an angry God who would not be satisfied with that death and promised to return and destroy everything.

The gift of Islam was a call to return to the Oneness of God, forsaking the polytheism and decadence of that society, live in peace, and no coercion in religion. His followers quickly perverted the true jihad (internal struggle) into an externality.

The Buddha’s insight was that hate manifested in violence, greed found in poverty of spirit, and delusion that mistakes the outer transience for inner purity are the cause of violence/suffering.

Good religion, religionless religion, must come to see that violence is not the answer to violence, personally – socially – globally.