Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The "A" word

What the abrahamitic religions such as Christianity, Islam and Judism have in common is the tendency to separate mind and body, to emphasis dogma, subjugate women, a dim view of sexual freedom and a tendency for war-mongering and conquest.
The only differences that Islam has from the other Abarnistic faiths is that fundamentalists seem to have more power and influence within it. If hard-core fundamentalists of Judism and Christianity had more power, then many Jews and Christians would be no better than the Taliban. This is a mystery as to why this is, given that the core of Islam is no different the other two other main monotheistic faiths.
There are many tenets of both Judaism and Christianity which also have no place in modern pluralistic societies.
The whole idea of a "one true" God is very narrow-minded and arrogant. Even more troubling is the idea of God who is separate from the universe and lording over it.
This is not to say the polytheistic or pagans are all saints, but they do have a richer and more sophisticated spiritual life. And, their beliefs seem to be more in tune with reality. Most if them have Gods who can be both good and evil. In this concept is the rejection of moral absolutes.
And most polytheist and pagans rarely Proslytise their religions and rarely claim to be the "one true" faith.
The very notion of a God who is all good and devil who is pure evil is a hideous simplification of the morally complex universe we live in.
In most conflicts, the line between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" isn’t so easy clear. In fact, some of histories greatest tyrants have tended to view the world in stark of black and white. People such as Hitler, Stalin and Bin Louden aren’t exactly known for nuanced view of reality.
In the Eastern tradition, there tends to be view of oneness and harmony of all things, including between good and evil.

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