Respect for All Life

We spoke last month about the inordinate amount of violence which is expressed by the zealots of Islam, and how that is particularly directed toward other humans. One of the reasons, we believe, that this religion is so willing to sacrifice their own lives and those of others, is to protect something very dear to the men of that religion: female subjugation. There are other reasons. It is a relatively new religion, speaking in human evolution terms, and new religions tend to be more violent in protection of their faith and/or way of life. There are certainly political reasons. Israel, backed by the Western nations, has taken land away from the Arab people, and treats them with disdain. These same Western nations overthrow their governments and foster coups, placing puppets in power, in order to have access to their oil. They and their ways of life are threatened by these rapacious invaders. Islamists are simply defending themselves against these greedy outside aggressors.

Understanding why the extremists of Islam are so willing to kill, however, does not mean that we can simply let this subject be, without further objection. Senseless killing of other humans, in defense of foolish religious myths, is, in and of itself, a horrible expression of human ignorance and immaturity. It is, moreover, a startling symptom of a much greater disease of the human conscience. Those who are so willing to kill other humans show that they have no respect for other human life; and they show beyond that lack, complete ignorance of the fact that we should respect all other life. We have, in other words, a very long mountain to climb. We have to first, in the human conscience, know that all other humans, and their ways of life, must be respected. We have to, beyond that very great leap of human conscience, also understand that we are connected to all other life, all of which must be respected. If we do not develop these two great leaps of conscience soon within the human psyche, we will not survive very much longer on this planet.

We all begin as individuals, each with our own certain needs, and find that if we do not fight for those rights, or needs, they will be taken away by someone else. We all have to defend ourselves when attacked. We are all attacked every day by bullies, psychopaths, unloving family members, corrupt officials and rapacious lawyers, and other nations. We must strike back in some way if we are struck, or else the lesson goes away. Self-protection is the key to species protection.  No one of us can take care of others, unless we take care of ourselves first. That’s the beginning of this long road in history, learning to value any other life as just as important. What we find difficult, is to look beyond the moment of anger and loss, and to understand that all other life has its own needs and rights, just as we do. We have had to learn, over the centuries, to respect other families, other neighbors, other towns, other states, other nations.  This is clearly still a work in progress. The amount of destruction  and loss of human life is still horrific, because we have not yet developed this maturity of human conscience necessary to demonstrate that respect.

We have a long road to travel before we, as a human species, will be able to treat all other humans with respect, rather than violence. If we are successful  in climbing to the top of this mountain, however, there is any even bigger one beyond it. We have to understand that all life on this planet is fully integrated. Everything that lives is tied together, just like all the cells in your body are tied together, and act in concert with each other to achieve goals – and most importantly – achieve survival. Human conscience is so slowly awaking to the realization that all of life is like one giant organism. If any part of it is lost, all of its other parts also participate in that loss. We can afford to lose a toe, or a finger, or some memory, or part of our hearing, or part of our eyesight, but when there is total organ failure, we suffer immensely. When various forms of life that live in harmony all are wiped out, just like all the cells of an eye or an ear, all the rest of our body of life suffers greatly. We are at terrible risk for pushing this disregard for all other life to the point that there is great danger of heart, kidney, or liver failure of this life organism as a whole. We are pushing our disrespect for all other life to the point that those other losses in the circle of life will hit us back, very hard.

We should all be vegetarians, since that entails the least objectionable amount of killing necessary  for us to live. The only right we have to kill other life is to survive, whether for sustenance or to fight back when attacked.

The human conscience has a steep climb, if we are to survive as a species.