Muslim zealots commandeer, in a concerted plan, four commercial flight American airplanes, which they plan to use as flying bombs on the White House, the Pentagon and the World Trade Center towers. Three of them succeed, killing over twenty five hundred innocent people. They committed these act because the occupants of those airplanes and these targeted structures were, in their fervent belief, evil “infidels.” Our “born again” Christian president states that his God told him the United States should invade the Muslim nation of Iraq. The result is a torn and disrupted nation. It appears to be headed for the loss of over three million lives, most of whom have been innocent civilians. Shiite and Sunni Muslims practice ethnic cleansing, and angrily kill each other because the other sect has the wrong faith. Israel sporadically invades and bombs its neighbors, treating them with disdain, because they are of an opposing faith. Various Jewish sects violently disagree as to how strictly the Torah should be interpreted. Christian protestantism continues to splinter, each denomination claiming a different true faith. Not only do the true believers in these religions disagree mightily, but they often do so violently, convinced that those others who do not share their views deserve to be punished, suppressed, or destroyed.
Yet these religions, which trace their roots back to the family of Abraham, share a common, deeply rooted mythology. This mythology serves as the bedrock basis for the faith of all these three religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Although all the evidence we have is that these myths have no basis in fact, that is not the way their followers see them. They see them as incontrovertible truths, on which all the universe and human life depends. Each of these religions or sects puts a slightly different twist or spin on these common myths, then demands that all others believe those specific twists, or suffer the consequences. Although each of these religions emphasizes its difference from all others, their commonality is a more glaring feature of their belief systems than any of their differences.
The first myth is that there is an all-powerful Divine Creator, who created this universe with a design and purpose. This Divinity is still creating, still designing, and still interfering with the events of all life according to his, her or its grand plan. This grand plan is leading to a goal in the future, which is as yet unclear to us.
The second myth is that this Creator formed humans to look like He, She or It. We look like God, and God looks like us. This similarity in appearance means to us that we are special creatures, partially Divine to some degree. It also means that we humans are a major player in this grand and previously conceived plan for the universe.
The third is that this Creator gave us humans control over the entire known world, to use as we see fit. We can develop, manipulate, pollute, eat or destroy any part of this world that we wish, because our God gave it to us as our possession. This gift presumably extends to the entire universe, which we can not only explore, but use in any way that is advantageous to us. Conservation and respect for all life are not mentioned in this Biblical fiat.
The fourth is that we are able to communicate with this Divinity. If we pray to It with humility and fervor, for a just cause, our prayers will be granted. Other life, without such just cause, will be defeated by us, because our God has answered out prayers and acted on our behalf. Inanimate matter can also be moved and manipulated by our all-powerful God, who is acting on our behalf.
The fifth is that our Creator/God will give us, if we profess certain beliefs and act them out in life, an existence after death, in an eternity of pleasure. Unfortunately, this myth also has a hideous corollary: all those humans who do not profess those different certain twists on these myths demanded of them, will suffer an ignominious fate. Most will be burned and tortured for an eternity. That number going to Hell forever would include more than 90% of the earth’s human population, for all time.
The sixth is that our Creator God is not only all-powerful, but also entirely good, the epitome of beneficence. It is the command of this perfect God that we become also perfect in our lives, becoming entirely moral at all times. Emphasis on the goodness of God, however, and an innate goodness in the universe, toward which we should strive, creates a theological dilemma. These religions have to invent an anti-God, called the Devil, in order to explain all the evil in the world. This Evil God is almost, in their theology, as powerful as the Perfectly Good God.
The best and brightest minds of all humanity tell us that these myths not only have no basis in fact, but that the evidence against them is overwhelming. The universe began 14.5 billion years ago, and we are still grasping to understand why and how it began. Our particular solar system and planet were formed 4.5 billion years ago. After 500 million years of violent chemistry, simple life forms began. All of the species of life since then have formed by natural selection. If there was formation of life species by design, that Designer had to be a blundering fool, because all of them show great flaws in their design. 99% of those strangely constructed species have already perished. In addition, the evidence is that humans are such an insignificant part of this vast universe, our insignificance cannot be measured mathematically. For such strange and insignificant creatures to believe that we look like the Creator of the entire universe, is blind and absurd egocentricity. For us to believe that we can use all resources of our planet home with wild abandon, and not pay a very dear price, is flagrantly bizarre. For us to believe that we can persuade a superpower in the sky to manipulate events on our behalf, outside the natural laws of the universe, is wildly insane. The concept that we will live after death is an egregious egocentric error. We have this one life to live, to express our talents to the best of our ability, to leave something behind of lasting value for those who follow us, to create, to love deeply and care compassionately. We have this one life to cherish, while we cherish all other life. What do we do? On the basis of these false myths and their evil corollaries, we bomb, murder, invade, destroy and behead. This is a monumental mistake for the human race.
It is time we realize that these beliefs, which are held in common by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are myths, and not facts. It is time we understood that we live in a universe which is guided only by physical laws and probability. It is time we cherish our brief existence on this earth, understanding that we have only one life to live with love, compassion and understanding. It is time our moral and ethical systems were based on fact, and not on unrealistic religious myth.