All religions ask a person to look beyond logic and common sense.
Christianity is the religion I am most familiar with. The next is Judaism, and the last is Islam. These are the big three in my world. There are many others of course, but I know much less about them - so I want to confine this discussion to Christianity and start with the "soul".
Christianity asks a believer to accept that all human beings have a "soul", an imperishable part that lives beyond death and will never, ever, die. This is, for me, hard to grasp. And it is just one example. There are many others. Think, for a moment, of the virgin birth of Jesus? And the triad of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Ghost - all one? And how about the notion that the Holy Bible is a collection of the actual words of God? We know better.
All of these foundational thoughts defy logic, but are regardless among the principle roots of Christianity.
The lives of the early believers are pretty well known. There are records describing brutal conditions during and after the time of Christ. There were bloody conflicts, slavery, religious wars, and human sacrifices. How do they square with Christian fidelity, worship, and teachings? Today we associate Christianity's terrible past with "ancient history" - and claim to be better than that. Non-sense.
That's exactly what I've been thinking about recently. Christians are still passing beggars in the street, still killing each other for no reason whatever, and going about the world with a sense of superiority. As recently as the war in Viet Nam, American Christians approved the carpet bombing of innocent women, children, and the elderly. Our political leaders, mostly Christian, appear to follow the same historical plans as they march to war. They repeat the following steps:
The lives of the early believers are pretty well known. There are records describing brutal conditions during and after the time of Christ. There were bloody conflicts, slavery, religious wars, and human sacrifices. How do they square with Christian fidelity, worship, and teachings? Today we associate Christianity's terrible past with "ancient history" - and claim to be better than that. Non-sense.
That's exactly what I've been thinking about recently. Christians are still passing beggars in the street, still killing each other for no reason whatever, and going about the world with a sense of superiority. As recently as the war in Viet Nam, American Christians approved the carpet bombing of innocent women, children, and the elderly. Our political leaders, mostly Christian, appear to follow the same historical plans as they march to war. They repeat the following steps:
- 1. They convince their followers that the proposed enemy is a potential threat.
- 2. That everyone of the enemy lacks humanity and has no conscience.
- 3. That the enemy are demons (or devils) that must be erased for our own safety.
- 4. And that our enemies, both INNOCENT and GUILT, are acceptable targets for death.
Not one of the four steps is compatible with Christianity.
Every one of them is perfectly in tune with Islam.
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