carline@ntlworld.com> In a recent Metanexus posting (2002.08.09), speaking of the recent WTC
attacks and their aftermath, Chris Floyd, a weekly columnist for the Moscow
Times wrote "Well yes, it's evil - as the killing of every innocent person
is - but it isn't new. It's as old as the hills, as old as any chipped flint
dug up from the past. It's religious perversion, tribalism, the lust for
power and -let's be painfully honest about it - a falling-out among former
allies, old comrades in undercover war. Each one of these is a powerful
engine of hatred - churning in the dirt of the real world, in the mixed
matter of the human brain, in the murk and folly of human history."
Responding to Chris Floyd's posting and echoing the same sentiment, my
friend Jeff Dahms, a physician from New York wrote "Science and religion
might be thought of as the larger cultural attempts to distill the cognitive
descriptive and emotional relational aspects of our evolving brains. How
difficult a task this is can be judged from the irony that these cultural
forms in turn (science and religion) are often in harness as the chief
sources of our collective lunacy."
"Eye for eye and Tooth for tooth."
That was the old dictum, a dictate from the God of the Old Testament,
vengeful, jealous and discriminating. The new dictum of Jesus was
forgiveness and altruistic love, a dictate of the Father in Heaven. In
reality, we have evolved to act with a mixture of these two traits in public
and private life, in the social context and in the political context. Those
of us who are inclined to follow the path of Jesus, we try but we often
fail. The selfish gene takes over at the individual and at societal level.
As Chris Floyd further writes "The White House points the finger of blame at
Osama Bin Laden - a demon made to order, right out of central casting,
remorseless, demented, crafty, rich. Like Saddam Hussein - another sinister
figure suspected of collusion in this week's horror - Bin Laden was once
empowered by America itself. The same intelligence services that now stand
blind, struck and wounded, cynically embraced these brutal renegades as
pawns in
the Great Game of geopolitics; embraced them, armed them, paid them, built
them up into autonomous powers - then, like Dr. Frankenstein, lost control
of their creatures. The used became the users, and in Iraq, Iran, Kuwait,
Afghanistan -- and now, New York and Washington, they have killed their
thousands and their tens of thousands"
It is no wonder that...
As we mourned the death of our brothers and sisters in the most outrageous
terrorist attacks ever committed, we heard from the pulpits of churches,
synagogues, mosques and temples all over the world that Love is stronger
than Hate. The Message of Jesus.
As we extended our compassion and our support for the thousands of families
that have lost their loved ones in this outrageous act of terrorism, we
heard war cries from our leaders and demands for instant retaliation from
the public at large. The Message of Darwin, the selfish gene.
Conflicts have arisen and wars have been fought within the context of
perceived historical events attributed to religious leaders and religious
beliefs from pre-historic times. Are we any different now?
Century after century before Christ, we listened to our gods- Greek gods,
Egyptian gods, gods of the Indus Valley, gods of the deserts of Arabia and
gods of other lands. And we waged wars amongst ourselves - tribe against
tribe. We participated in the conflicts of the gods themselves.
Century after century, millennium after millennium after the resurrection of
Jesus the Christ, we preached his message that God is Love and Love is God,
our Father in heaven. Yet when it came to action, we practiced the message
of the God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaiah - Eye for Eye and Tooth for Tooth.
Century after century, millennium after millennium, we loved those that
loved us in the name of Jesus. And we hated those that hated us in the name
of the vengeful God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaiah. We love when it is
convenient and we hate when it is to our advantage.
We preached peace in the name of Jesus and we fought battle after battle in
the name of the revengeful God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaiah. Every time we
fought violence with violence, the mightiest amongst us won. Every time we
won, we became compassionate and helped those whom we defeated to rebuild
their lands, their economies.
Century after century, we preached that there is no God but Allah, the
Compassionate and proclaimed that Jesus and Mohammed are his prophets. Yet
century after century, we hesitated not to bring people to Allah's fold by
the power of the sword. And we continue to do the same.
Century after century, we preached that Allah, Jehovah, Vishnu and Shiva are
but different names of the one God, the loving God in us and outside of us
al ! Yet century after century, we performed as if they are different. We
acted as if they are in conflict amongst themselves, even anxious to commit
us to perform evil acts in their names, just as the gods of ancient history
did.
Time and again, we proved that Darwin was right. Survival of the fittest,
the law of the jungle is also the law of the human, we demonstrated. Time
and again, Darwin won and Jesus lost.
We act this way for we know no better. We know not how to conquer Hate with
Love. Love is in our hearts. Hate and Revenge are in our blood .That's our
history. That's our legacy.
Will the newer Spiritual disciplines and the emerging fields of Experimental
theology, Neurotheology and Pharmacotheology make a difference? Will the new
techniques of genetic engineering make a difference? Only time will tell.
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