This may be hard for many, many people to accept but taking the relgious viewpoint that God is an epistemoligical reality, our Creator, that rules over man is a generally patholigical viewpoint. It is pathological for two main reasons: 1. it hides or obscures the fact that all religions are man-made projections and ethical systems based on a combination of healthy and pathological real, professed, and/or hidden human values; and 2. allowing people to think that religious messages are messages 'delivered by God' allows the men and/or women who created these messages the opportunity and 'allleged God-given right' to avoid all responsibility and accountablity as far as the relative 'health' and/or 'pathology' of the 'ethical or unethical' message that is delivered. Millions of people have died from the swords and bullets behind 'professsed messages from God' while both the leaders and the followers behind these messages, swords, and bullets attempt to escape -- often successfully -- all responsibility, accountablity, and culpibility for their actions.
I have no problems with any of the great religions of the world -- other than the fact that they all need to represent themselves as man-made, idealistic-spiritual-religious mythologies answering to humanistic-existential values and principles (see my next essay); not as 'systems of indesputable, God-given messages, truths, and values'. This latter belief in itself is pathological, and as stated above, accountable for countless human wars, deaths, and misery.
If or when the leaders of the Taliban, Iraq 'insurgents', Iran, North Korea...etc. come out and epistemologically and ethically state that they are fighting a war against 'American Imperialism and domination', then they have a leg to stand upon and the American people need to take a long, hard, objective look at what they are doing over there in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how they are, in large part, alientating the rest of the world with their currently very debatable 'democratic' vs. 'imperialist' foreign policy. However, as long as the Taliban and other political and war leaders over there continue to mix in their professed 'God-given rights to holy missions, holy wars, and armed combat (jihad) to eliminate all Jews and/or whoever else is not living up to their Islamic extremes, then they will continue to be painted -- rightfully so -- as 'terrorists' and as 'evil'. Religion needs sto be taken out of politics and 'God-given messages' need to be taken out of religion. The U.S. needs to learn that it does not have the 'unadulterated and unilateral right' to determine world ethics and policy -- particularily when it is becoming more and more clear to the rest of the world that American ethics and policy has become more and more poisoned and corrupted by American Narcissistic Capitalism (particularly what Eisenhour called the 'Military-Industrial-Complex', with the isse of oil probably not far behind) that is making a mockery of the so-called American ideal of the term 'democracy'. This is not a strictly American phenomenon as Narcisssitic Capitalism as well as Narcissistic Religion (especially of the jihad type) is poisoning, corrrupting, and destroying the world. All human establishments, organizations, structures, nations, and policies including the United Nations need to be re-built on the basis of humanistic-existential values -- that means a healthy balance of 'human compassion' and 'human accountability'; not people passing off, avoiding, and/or justifying their crimes against humanity on the basis of either 'messages from God' and 'holy wars' or alternatively imperialist wars that are justified in the name of 'freedom' and 'democracy'. Religions need to be based on humanistic-existential values and principles; Capitalism needs to be based on humaistic-existential principles; politics needs to be based on humanistic-existential principles. Philosophy needs to be based on humanistic-existential values and principles. Medicine needs to be based on humanistic-existential values and principles. And all of these different areas and systems of human culture need to evolve dialectically and democractically as well as humanistically and existentially. Indeed, I would list multi-integrative-evolutionary-dialectical-democracy as a core set of humanistic-existential values and principles. This is not 'fake-narcissitic-dialectical-democracy' that we are talking about here but rather 'real-gut-wrenching-dielactical-democractic'. One of the leaders of Iran came out not too long ago and 'challenged' the U.S. to a debate. It blew my mind. An offer like that -- regardless of the credibility of the person or persons that it came from, particularly if it came from a leader of highly volatile nation, a nation that could be involved in the next World War -- should not be quickly or lightly dismissed. The U.S. should have quickly supported, approved, and encouraged that line of action -- even if only to find out how serious Iran was about such a possibility.
Alas, I have moved too far out of the realm of religion and intio the realm of policitics, even if they are intimately entwined.
Enough said for today.
dgb, September 5th, 2006.
Referencer: The movie 'Why We Fight'
* DGBN
* David Gordon Bain
* (Humanistic-Existetnial)Dialectical-Gap-Bridging-Negotiations
* Democracy Goes Beyond Narcisism
No comments:
Post a Comment