Danger

I'm fascinated by the subject of religion and concerned about the phenomenon in general not because I was abused by a bishop as a young child-I wasn't.  I'm not angry about having to pay tithing or being forced to fast for half a day, once a month (a piece of white bread never tasted so good as on Fast and Testimony Sunday).  And its not because I'm a trouble maker and rabble rouser by nature.  On the contrary, I was a "pleasure to have in class" for my teachers, and a content, helpful companion for my mom as she went about her daily errands.  Going to church early Sundays sometimes meant being dragged out of bed, but it was my brother who simply refused to go. In my mind, I was goody goody Able and Seth was disobedient Cain (if he ever wanted to kill me for my self-righteous attitude, I never knew.  We got along just fine).  So no, I'm not preoccupied with religion because I naturally oppose "goodness" or "doing what's right".  The opposite is true-I have always felt a strong allegiance to "the good", to use philosophical jargon.  That's why I was such a well-behaved Mormon at a young age; and that's why I'm so adamantly against religion now.  What, then, does religion represent?

What does a super-hero look out for?  DANGER!  You can blame the action flicks of the 80s for this particular trait of mine if you'd like; but whatever the reason, I'm programmed to perk up at any sign of potential trouble.  Call it my Spidey Sense.  Jennifer is familiar with how this manifests itself during our road rides together.  Intersections, off-ramps, on-ramps, big trucks, pot-holes, goatheads-the streets are teaming with DANGER that must be avoided or combatted (usually avoided).

My (eh hem) Spidey Sense extends out beyond city streets and county borders.  If a threat is particularly large and menacing, I can pick up its signals from across continents and even time.  Terrorism is an example of one such threat.  Its not my job to prevent the next 9/11, but I can't help but feel concerned.  And this concern translates to some degree of interest in the subject; and yes, an ever present will to act if and when action is needed.

No, religion is not terrorism.  Terrorism is not genocide.  Genocide is not war.  Global warming is a different phenomenon all together.  An angry bee, a pot hole in the road, a tailgating SUV, a crack in the sidewalk.  Non of this can be fairly equated.  But they all harbor a threat in some form and to some degree.  Therefore, the extent to which each should be removed, fixed, or reformed will vary greatly.

This particular blog post is not meant to be about religion as a whole.  My purpose here is to be more specific; to break apart religion, terrorism, racism, war, etc, and discover the specific human tendencies or social phenomena that are truly to blame for the evil and suffering of this world.

We can blame Islam for the deaths of innocent people caught in a suicide attack.  Or we can blame Al Qaeda.  Perhaps the blame should be placed on the individual bomber?  And shouldn't we blame society for failing the bomber?  What kind of education or government assistance did he/she receive to rescue him/her from a desperate life?   Foreign governments may deserve the blame for their oppressive/invasive policies.

The problem is, everyone we can blame is acting either naturally, or in accordance to what they think is right.  If you or I born and raised in the impoverished, war-torn, and isolated regions of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan, we'd likely view The West as a threat to our religious tradition and freedom. Our immediate family and friends would likely have connections to the Taliban, and our allegiance to the home team might lead us to join the fight against foreign intruders.

When we try to empathize or understand why people do things that we consider bad, we realize that things are not as black and white as they seem.  This doesn't mean we cannot draw a line and say that murder, oppression, needless suffering, etc aren't genuinely bad.  It just means that maybe we're looking at things the wrong way.

So, who is most responsible when a suicide bomber detonates himself in a crowd of innocent shoppers?  Pinning the blame on the individual bomber is a useless exercise, and it's not just because the perpetrator is dead.  Our concern should be with WHAT is most responsible.  Suicide bombings are more than single, unique incidents.  They are apart of a larger phenomenon.  That phenomenon cannot fairly be called "humanity".  This would be far too nebulous.  It can more fairly be called religion; but still, this is not fair enough.

One cannot simply dismiss religion as harmful when there are significant components of most major religions that are responsible for immense good.  Feeding the starving, educating children, building peace, inspiring goodwill:  These are good effects that often originate out of religion.

Furthermore, so much of what's gone wrong in this world cannot be blamed on religion as a whole, nor does much of the blame lie at the feet of specific religions and specific religious teachings.  Evil does not depend upon faith, scripture, religious personal identification, obedience to God's word, etc-all necessary attributes of anything considered a religion-to prey on innocent victims.  In a world where religion never existed; murder, theft, abuse, injustice, chaos, poverty, etc would still exist.

But faith, scripture, religious personal identification, obedience to God's word, etc can be explicitly dangerous (as when his word promises paradise to martyrs); and when they are not presently so, their mere existence allows more specific dangers to survive, to incubate, until a later date they do harm.  Sam Harris's The End of Faith presents a compelling case to support the charge against religion as a whole.

Religion is not off the hook, but it is wise for us to momentarily release it of responsibility and search for the underlying dangerous phenomena/tendencies that inhabit religion and other manifestations of humanity.  We don't have to talk about individuals, specific religions, or any other kind of entity that could take personal offense.  Good is so often packaged with bad.  It should be our mission to identify the dangerous components of life-of entities and of tendencies-and abolish them.  Whatever is left standing will be better for it.

Danger!:

• The sense that your problems exist because no one is helping you.
• The sense that all of your problems are caused by others.
• The belief that your harmful actions are justified because of a perceived injustice/threat to you.  
• The complete abandonment of "doing what's right" in favor of doing what makes you money (doing what is right is doing things that ensure peace, harmony, stability, and fairness in one's society.  Corruption.
• Too much charity and help without an ultimate plan of growing self-empowerment and self-reliance.
• Laziness and inefficiency.
• Unthinking loyalty to a group based on pride/comfort and not reason.  Nationalism, Religious Identity, Racism, Sports Team Worship, and other arbitrary ways of dividing people. 
• Abuse of others for being different or outside your group.
• The belief that something is true because it makes you feel good.
• The belief that something is true because it feels "right".
• The belief that something is true because someone or some book claims it is, despite inadequate evidence to support the claim
• The belief that someone is "called of God"-that someone is divinely elected to lead, infallible, and must be obeyed.
• The belief that one's only purpose is to serve the will of a divine leader or god.
• The belief that you do not have the right or power to make decisions in your own life.  
• The belief that you deserve better than others.
• Hurting others.
• Eroding or destroying a healthy environment, including the living things in it. 
• The feeling that an intellectual disagreement or challenge to something you believe is an actual threat or grave offense.
• Ignorance or lack of education.
• Viewing mistakes by others as purposeful slights/attacks against you.
• more to come...