Judaism carries the belief that their genetic group has been chosen by the one and only God of the universe, to serve as an example for all other nations, and to be superior to all other nations. A major part of this mythology is to also believe that there will be, at some point in human history, a Messiah, or great leader, who will gather the people of Israel together in justice and righteousness, and establish the rule of Israel over all other nations. At some time near that coming of their great Messiah, the myth of Judaism also states that there will be a final struggle, at which time all those humans who have been “evil” throughout history, will be recalled, judged, and damned to Hell for an eternity. Although this mythology is not quite as aggressive as some of our other religions, it certainly carries plenty of violence directed toward all those humans who do not subscribe to this particular misdirected belief system.
Christianity carries this malevolence directed toward those other humans who do not share their belief system several steps further. Christians believe in an absolute goodness in the universe, and that this goodness is embodied in their Creator-God. Since there is a horrific amount of evil in the world, in human terms, this necessitates the creation of an almost equally powerful Devil -God, who is evil, and who is constantly trying to injure humans in many ways. The Good God and the Evil God are always fighting, causing mayhem in our human world. This titanic struggle, according to Christianity, will end only when there is an Armageddon, or final battle between these two giant forces, ending in complete destruction of our world. What happens to humans at this time of complete destruction? All those who believe in the hero of Christianity, Jesus, will go to Heaven, where there is constant peace and joy, for an eternity. All those who have, during their lifetime, never believed that Jesus is the Messiah, will be damned to Hell, where they will be tortured in perpetuity. In other words, Christianity predicts that over ninety five percent of all humans will be in agony forever, after the apocalypse separates those believers from the “bad” non-believers.
Yet Judaism and Christianity are just pikers when it comes to a religion teaching its followers that all infidels must be severely punished. In this category, Islam is the no-hands-down champion. Muhammad, the founder of this muscular religion, demands that his followers show compassion and mercy. Unfortunately, Muhammad also exhorts all his followers to show no mercy toward any human who does not accept him as the last and greatest prophet of the one and only true God of the universe. Any person who does not believe in Muhammad must be tortured, maimed, imprisoned, killed or beheaded. The pages of the Koran, in gruesome detail, demand that all Muslims eliminate all those persons in this world who are not Muslims. It is as if the bipolar disease of mercy versus violence begins in disguise in Judaism, becomes fully expressed in Christianity, and then becomes dominant in the loving/vehemence of Islam.
These three religions leave us with a terrible legacy. They each pretend to be our guides toward developing a universal human conscience, but each teaches unmitigated violence toward our brothers, sisters and children. The teachings of these three religions become an easy excuse for those of us in our societies who are angry, greedy and rapacious. Our religions are used as excuses for human behavior which is labeled as righteous, but is imbued with human evil. We invade, we bomb, we rape resources, we kill, all in the name of our righteous religions. It is indeed a sad commentary on our collective intelligence, that we cannot see these religious reasons as human evil, rather than righteous.
There always have been end of the world stories with us, and new ones developed in a steady flow. The development of the atomic bomb certainly fostered the growth of this type of mind set. All of us are concerned that some rogue person or some rogue nation will use an atomic bomb in a way which will throw all the rest of the existing world into conflict, and end life as we know it. Such a possibility now seems not just Biblical, but well within our reach. Using our deeply flawed religions as an excuse, it seems that the entire world is engaged in an unrelenting conflict which pits nation against nation and religion against religion. The actively stewing minds in our society, our writers, have deeply felt this aura. We have a burgeoning number of apocalyptic novels which have appeared within the last few years, predicting what things will be like at the end of our current civilizations. It first all of this has seemed bizarre. It has slowly dawned upon us that perhaps these predictions are correct. We are in trouble.
And sadly, I happen to agree. It seems to me that the peril of an Armageddon is very close, and that our minds have not yet matured enough to realize we must treat all other humans as equals, with respect, regardless of their beliefs, or all perish in some sort of massive destruction. We must realize that our religions are myths, and cannot be used as an excuse for mayhem. We must realize that all other humans are our parents, brothers, sisters and children. We must realize that all of life is tied together as one life, and treasure, rather than destroy, all other life. If we do not progress soon to this universal ethic, we are gone, gone, gone. The apocalyptic writers, I believe, have it right.