Sectarianism and Survival
Today (June 13, 2013) the news that the U.S. decided to arm the Syrian rebels because ostensibly the Assad government had used chemical weapons against the rebels set off a chain of "thoughts" in my mind which I am sharing here with you in the interest of searching for truths and answers about the overriding issues of survival and self-actualization.
A human child is born. A potential miracle or a terrible waste is about to occur for Human is a strange, self-conflicting, gifted, most evolved organism on this planet. The child grows up and develops consciousness of himself and of the environment around him. He starts asking questions and receives answers first from his family and then from good, scholarly books, if he is lucky not to be indoctrinated and brainwashed by mind traffickers at a tender young age to believe in nonsense and superstition and wishful thinking. He goes to college where hopefully he runs into minds superior to his own. As he joins the work force and earns his daily bread, he tentatively and unwittingly formulates theories to make sense of what's happening in the world while justifying the reason for his absurd existence which he knows is finite.
A functioning human must balance between his own needs and the needs his family>tribe>people>nation has placed on him. He is a social animal but acutely driven to assert himself. Along the way to search for answers there are forces (false and stupid doctrines of religions and philosophies alike, secular propaganda from commerce and politics, fears, complexes--both inferiority and superiority, power structures, basic needs of food, shelter, and sex) which slow him down but ironically are part of the gist of answers. A real human is the one who, in his search for answers, relies on facts and logic, not on blind faith and acceptance of what is presented to him, contrary to logic, contrary to scientific knowledge, contrary to common sense. Those fail who do so are merely children who suffer from arrested development, and are easy preys for charlatans. We all die anyway. We must die as free men, not as slaves, "religious" or otherwise. To be stupid is to be exploited. To be weak is to invite attack. Whoever controls the mind of the other owns that person.
Humans function in groups which develop customs to aid in the survival. Religion is nothing but a stylized custom of providing answers to existential questions and furnishing a moral code to help the group>tribe>society function in harmony. Religion becomes a problem when it gets ambitious and decides to go extra-territorial or when an invading tribe>society conquers its neighbors and imposes its religion (its way of thinking, its myths, its mythos) on the conquered subjects.
Religion is more of a dividing than unifying force because each one, despite paying lip service to being respectful of others, "thinks" it is the only "right" one. Within each religion itself there are sects. And they turn on one another with pitiful ferocity. Note the bloodshed in the name of Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Europe in centuries past, and the endless fights between the Sunnis and the Shiites in the Islamic world. It is also noteworthy that of all religions, Buddhism is the only one which has not spread its influence by force, by trickery, by appeals to nonsense, but only by quiet appeals to reason and reasoning. In addition, there are no wars between Buddhist sects. But many scholars think Buddhism is not a religion per se, deep down and at its core. It is a philosophy, a way of looking at the world. It is comfortable with itself and is not in any frantic hurry to spread its message. It does not believe in Doomsday scenario. It does not believe in numerical superiority either. It knows that a single wise man is worth more a billion slavish idiots. Its converts in the West tend to be affluent, educated, and know how think logically.
Religion is closely tied with political-socio-economic status. Syria is a good example. It used to be a Christian country until the explosion of Islam from the Arab peninsula in the seventh century. Now the country is being torn apart by sectarianism. The minority but ruling Shiites and Christians are fighting a war against the majority Sunnis, which left more than 90,000 dead already and millions homeless and displaced. Syrians are killing themselves, with the aid and weapons and even personnel furnished by non-Syrians. Now with America getting into the fray, Assad's days are numbered, but not before the country is reduced to ruins and tens of thousands, if not more, of Syrians are going to perish. Religion is bad for Syria.
Religion is also bad for Sri Lanka where Buddhists killed a lot of Hindu Tamils, for Myanmar where Buddhists are clashing with Muslims, and for the Philippines where the Muslims in the South are waging a low-grade but persistent war against the Catholics in the North. In Vietnam, as a source of social unrest and divisiveness, religion was a non-issue throughout its history until Catholicism was introduced there by evangelical, ambitious white missionaries. The Vietnamese Catholic minority latched itself with the ruling elites (French colonists, Diem and Thieu presidencies) to dominate the Buddhist majority. I remember in the wake of the overthrow and killing of Diem, the beloved and revered President of the Vietnamese Catholics and is now being "sanctified" and "beatified" by them, busloads of young militant Christians were unloaded in Saigon streets where they marched with grim, angry faces, and sticks of freshly cut tree limbs in their hands. Luckily there were no violent street religious clashes in Saigon, despite this ugly and stupid provocation. The triumphant and enlightened Buddhist leadership knew better and decided not to meet stupidity with stupidity. Now with the 50th anniversary of the Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức's martyr death coming up, there is a resurgence of vociferous accusation that the Buddhists were the tools of the Vietcong and thus contributed to the loss of South Vietnam, which invited the retaliatory condemnation that the Catholics were the followers and collaborators of the French invaders. The Vietnamese Buddhists and the Catholics are busy denouncing each other, instead of joining forces to fight against the common enemies which are the Vietcong and the Red Chinese.
I personally believe religion does not really change the essence of a human. Religion may enhance his veneer, and may provide the ignorant and the stupid with some guideposts so they can go through life without being completely bewildered and lost, but if history is any guide, it had done more harm than good. When the Christian Spaniards reconquered Spain, their religious zeal and fanaticism led to the expulsion of Sephardic Jews and the Moors, leading to the weakening of intellectual life in Spain. It is not widely known that when the Islamic Moors themselves ruled most of Spain for many centuries, they were tolerant rulers and let the Christians and the Jews practice their own religions.
A country beset by sectarianism fed by religious differences is an easy prey for foreign domination. The country may not survive as a sovereign entity. That is what is happening in Syria. To negate the harms brought about by religion and bigotry and willful wishful thinking, academic courses like philosophy, rhetoric, world history, and biology must be rigorously taught in high school.
A human mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Wissai
June 13, 20136
Sectarianism and Survival
Today (June 13, 2013) the news that the U.S. decided to arm the Syrian rebels because ostensibly the Assad government had used chemical weapons against the rebels set off a chain of "thoughts" in my mind which I am sharing here with you in the interest of searching for truths and answers about the overriding issues of survival and self-actualization.
A human child is born. A potential miracle or a terrible waste is about to occur for Human is a strange, self-conflicting, gifted, most evolved organism on this planet. The child grows up and develops consciousness of himself and of the environment around him. He starts asking questions and receives answers first from his family and then from good, scholarly books, if he is lucky not to be indoctrinated and brainwashed by mind traffickers at a tender young age to believe in nonsense and superstition and wishful thinking. He goes to college where hopefully he runs into minds superior to his own. As he joins the work force and earns his daily bread, he tentatively and unwittingly formulates theories to make sense of what's happening in the world while justifying the reason for his absurd existence which he knows is finite.
A functioning human must balance between his own needs and the needs his family>tribe>people>nation has placed on him. He is a social animal but acutely driven to assert himself. Along the way to search for answers there are forces (false and stupid doctrines of religions and philosophies alike, secular propaganda from commerce and politics, fears, complexes--both inferiority and superiority, power structures, basic needs of food, shelter, and sex) which slow him down but ironically are part of the gist of answers. A real human is the one who, in his search for answers, relies on facts and logic, not on blind faith and acceptance of what is presented to him, contrary to logic, contrary to scientific knowledge, contrary to common sense. Those fail who do so are merely children who suffer from arrested development, and are easy preys for charlatans. We all die anyway. We must die as free men, not as slaves, "religious" or otherwise. To be stupid is to be exploited. To be weak is to invite attack. Whoever controls the mind of the other owns that person.
Humans function in groups which develop customs to aid in the survival. Religion is nothing but a stylized custom of providing answers to existential questions and furnishing a moral code to help the group>tribe>society function in harmony. Religion becomes a problem when it gets ambitious and decides to go extra-territorial or when an invading tribe>society conquers its neighbors and imposes its religion (its way of thinking, its myths, its mythos) on the conquered subjects.
Religion is more of a dividing than unifying force because each one, despite paying lip service to being respectful of others, "thinks" it is the only "right" one. Within each religion itself there are sects. And they turn on one another with pitiful ferocity. Note the bloodshed in the name of Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Europe in centuries past, and the endless fights between the Sunnis and the Shiites in the Islamic world. It is also noteworthy that of all religions, Buddhism is the only one which has not spread its influence by force, by trickery, by appeals to nonsense, but only by quiet appeals to reason and reasoning. In addition, there are no wars between Buddhist sects. But many scholars think Buddhism is not a religion per se, deep down and at its core. It is a philosophy, a way of looking at the world. It is comfortable with itself and is not in any frantic hurry to spread its message. It does not believe in Doomsday scenario. It does not believe in numerical superiority either. It knows that a single wise man is worth more a billion slavish idiots. Its converts in the West tend to be affluent, educated, and know how think logically.
Religion is closely tied with political-socio-economic status. Syria is a good example. It used to be a Christian country until the explosion of Islam from the Arab peninsula in the seventh century. Now the country is being torn apart by sectarianism. The minority but ruling Shiites and Christians are fighting a war against the majority Sunnis, which left more than 90,000 dead already and millions homeless and displaced. Syrians are killing themselves, with the aid and weapons and even personnel furnished by non-Syrians. Now with America getting into the fray, Assad's days are numbered, but not before the country is reduced to ruins and tens of thousands, if not more, of Syrians are going to perish. Religion is bad for Syria.
Religion is also bad for Sri Lanka where Buddhists killed a lot of Hindu Tamils, for Myanmar where Buddhists are clashing with Muslims, and for the Philippines where the Muslims in the South are waging a low-grade but persistent war against the Catholics in the North. In Vietnam, as a source of social unrest and divisiveness, religion was a non-issue throughout its history until Catholicism was introduced there by evangelical, ambitious white missionaries. The Vietnamese Catholic minority latched itself with the ruling elites (French colonists, Diem and Thieu presidencies) to dominate the Buddhist majority. I remember in the wake of the overthrow and killing of Diem, the beloved and revered President of the Vietnamese Catholics and is now being "sanctified" and "beatified" by them, busloads of young militant Christians were unloaded in Saigon streets where they marched with grim, angry faces, and sticks of freshly cut tree limbs in their hands. Luckily there were no violent street religious clashes in Saigon, despite this ugly and stupid provocation. The triumphant and enlightened Buddhist leadership knew better and decided not to meet stupidity with stupidity. Now with the 50th anniversary of the Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức's martyr death coming up, there is a resurgence of vociferous accusation that the Buddhists were the tools of the Vietcong and thus contributed to the loss of South Vietnam, which invited the retaliatory condemnation that the Catholics were the followers and collaborators of the French invaders. The Vietnamese Buddhists and the Catholics are busy denouncing each other, instead of joining forces to fight against the common enemies which are the Vietcong and the Red Chinese.
I personally believe religion does not really change the essence of a human. Religion may enhance his veneer, and may provide the ignorant and the stupid with some guideposts so they can go through life without being completely bewildered and lost, but if history is any guide, it had done more harm than good. When the Christian Spaniards reconquered Spain, their religious zeal and fanaticism led to the expulsion of Sephardic Jews and the Moors, leading to the weakening of intellectual life in Spain. It is not widely known that when the Islamic Moors themselves ruled most of Spain for many centuries, they were tolerant rulers and let the Christians and the Jews practice their own religions.
A country beset by sectarianism fed by religious differences is an easy prey for foreign domination. The country may not survive as a sovereign entity. That is what is happening in Syria. To negate the harms brought about by religion and bigotry and willful wishful thinking, academic courses like philosophy, rhetoric, world history, and biology must be rigorously taught in high school.
A human mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Wissai
June 13, 20136
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