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Imagine if you will, that a Father has three sons, all of which the Father loves, absolutely. Let us further imagine that each of the three sons wants to be the favorite son; and, as a result, each son hates as well as despises his two other brothers. Imagine a little further that each of the Father’s sons spends most of their time trying to kill, cheat, defame and/or slaughter their brothers. Imagine still further that each son has convinced himself that their father wants him, may even expect him, to kill his brothers. How would you feel, if you were God looking down upon your own creation; while being forced to realize, yet again, that no one really believes that You actually objectively exist? If you were God, how would you feel about the fact that humanity has yet to learn how to love their enemies? How would you like to be God, realizing that humanity still never learns anything from its past mistakes? Would you like to be God looking down on three major religions all of which say that they love as well as attempt to obey You, while each one wants to kill the other, all in your name? Seems to me that the whole problem for three major religions, Judaism, Christianity as well as Islam, began when Abraham sent Hagar out into the desert wilderness. What Jews as well as Christian appear to miss, is the fact that God gave Ishmael the same blessing God gave to Isaac. At some point humanity is supposed to have learned as least one lesson from the historical record – but we never do. Over and over again, humanity, as a whole, repeats the same mistakes our forebears did. One reality lesson we humans never seem to get is, we never seem to stop projecting evil outside of ourselves. Our enemies are evil. We are on the side of ‘the good.’ Sophocles once stated that "nothing deserves a lie" – If you have to kill your enemy before you can defeat them – you have already lost the battle. Killing is easy. Learning how to incorporate our eternal differences into a cohesive, evolving whole, is hard. If we still have to kill each other in order to get anywhere, then we have remained little more than civilized barbarians. Any idiot can kill, but who can heal anything anymore? Didn’t Jesus Christ say that we have to love our enemies as much as we love ourselves? At this point, we cannot even see much less love anything beyond ourselves. Are we not all convinced that we are, in the right, while the other remains, in the wrong? Did not Jesus say that anyone can love their friends, but that God expects us to also love our enemies? Are we ever going to tire from projecting all of the evil, stupidity, shortsightedness as well as blame outside of ourselves? If you were God, and therefore no respector of persons, and you looked upon the current state of terrorism as well as inter-religious warfare, how would you feel? Do we really believe that Our God is on our side but their God is a mere Illusion? If we all believe that there is only one God, can we believe that our God wants us to kill the rest? Can we be so absurd as to believe that if God blesses our country, we can count on God’s cursing our enemies? God cannot be God and want any planetary forms of genocide performed in His name. How many times does Inquisition consciousness have to raise its ugly head before we all realize that no one speaks for God? No one has God on their side but against all others. And God has not told anybody to judge, sentence nor condemn any others, especially in His name. We cannot dialogue if all we can do is condemn. Dialogue results from self-discipline, humility as well as respect (knowledge) for the others position. We need to ask ourselves what made us think that God had died and that God made us God in His stead? All three religions believe in the same God. Christians believe in Jesus while Muslims believe in Jesus Christ as well as Mohammed. All three religions believe in the same Ten Commandments. Both Christians as well as Muslims believe in the Second Coming of Christ. It is insane for humanity to find itself in this current religious absurdity. Are we so busy looking down upon everyone else that we have forgotten, yet again, to look up! Instead of spending all of our time justifying our arrogant, self-righteous pursuits, why not compare our pathetically ‘correct’ points of view in front of the God we all claim to serve? Seems to me that now just may be the time to state a spiritual fact; namely, the emperor still has no clothes on. No one is an expert on anything. No one speaks for God. No one has been asked by God to kill another person in God’s name. Perhaps if we could stop pretending to be God long enough we might realize that we are not God. No one religion has all the truths. All religions have valid points of view. Instead of blasting our enemies to smithereens, why don’t we make the aim to listen to them? Wouldn’t we all benefit from a mutually respectful dialogue? Perhaps you say – just how stupid as well as naďve can this author be? We have talked and talked and talked yet we never get anywhere. I agree. We have talked ad nauseum but have we listened at all? Maybe our (collective) points of view are too narrow. Image the outcome if each of the three major religions put their best w/man into a spiritual dialogue. Image if the sole aim of this dialogue was to come up with a mutually beneficial solution. Imagine if the solution had to be approved, by God as the solution that God would have suggested? In other words, what would this ‘alleged’ God, we all love, want us to do at this point? Fanciful,
yes – possible – not as we are. For what it is worth, there is no
law that states that we have to repeat every mistake that ever happened,
thereby, "dying like dogs" Gurdjieff, just
because we always have. © Sojourner Pass Press |
