The Anguish of Doubt
Every time a suicide bomber kills and maims people in the name of Islam, world leaders, as well as a multitude of mullahs, rush to announce that the terrorists do not represent the true religion, that most Muslims are gentle and peace-loving people.
Discounting for the moment the widespread jubilation that greets events such as the fall of the twin towers in New York, and seeking to support the general view that Islam is, or should be, the way of peace, can an explanation be found for the mental turmoil that turns studious youths into murderous maniacs? Has Islam reached a stage in its history that parallels a critical stage in the development of Christianity? A favourite quotation from the Quran has been translated as: 'The servants of the Merciful are they who tread upon the earth softly, and when the ignorant approach them, they reply peace.
' The prophets and founders of all religions express a desire to bring peace to humanity, to remove the causes of conflict and war.
It is their followers who turn religions into instruments of division, and the first step is in giving their beliefs a name.
Most advanced religions express a belief in a single creator but they use different names both for the creator and for their own community of adherents.
In the modern era, the Baha'is teach that all religions are one but they have perpetuated the old trend by introducing yet another name.
Human beings do not hide their knowledge, they hide their ignorance.
Yet, those who are assured of their understanding feel no need to shout from the rooftops.
Fanaticism is the first manifestation of doubt.
When advances in science and logic reveal inconsistencies in religious understanding, the first reaction is to close eyes and ears and shoot the messenger.
This is what happened in Christendom with the persecution of scientists and independent thinkers at the time of the Inquisition.
Even today the Catholic Church strongly resists selected scientific advances and suppresses new historical knowledge such as revealed by the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Christianity is more than six centuries older than Islam and much of its flock has departed to secular pastures.
Most of those who remain have learned to adapt their understanding to accommodate advances in science and scholarship.
Leading clerics have written and spoken about the absence of certainty in religious belief.
It is Islam which is now experiencing the birth-pangs of doubt and is in the throes of an anguished reaction.
And much of the initial impulse, quite understandably, arises from those communities which fled the poverty and oppression of failed states dominated by religion, to find a better life in secular western democracies.
Discounting for the moment the widespread jubilation that greets events such as the fall of the twin towers in New York, and seeking to support the general view that Islam is, or should be, the way of peace, can an explanation be found for the mental turmoil that turns studious youths into murderous maniacs? Has Islam reached a stage in its history that parallels a critical stage in the development of Christianity? A favourite quotation from the Quran has been translated as: 'The servants of the Merciful are they who tread upon the earth softly, and when the ignorant approach them, they reply peace.
' The prophets and founders of all religions express a desire to bring peace to humanity, to remove the causes of conflict and war.
It is their followers who turn religions into instruments of division, and the first step is in giving their beliefs a name.
Most advanced religions express a belief in a single creator but they use different names both for the creator and for their own community of adherents.
In the modern era, the Baha'is teach that all religions are one but they have perpetuated the old trend by introducing yet another name.
Human beings do not hide their knowledge, they hide their ignorance.
Yet, those who are assured of their understanding feel no need to shout from the rooftops.
Fanaticism is the first manifestation of doubt.
When advances in science and logic reveal inconsistencies in religious understanding, the first reaction is to close eyes and ears and shoot the messenger.
This is what happened in Christendom with the persecution of scientists and independent thinkers at the time of the Inquisition.
Even today the Catholic Church strongly resists selected scientific advances and suppresses new historical knowledge such as revealed by the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Christianity is more than six centuries older than Islam and much of its flock has departed to secular pastures.
Most of those who remain have learned to adapt their understanding to accommodate advances in science and scholarship.
Leading clerics have written and spoken about the absence of certainty in religious belief.
It is Islam which is now experiencing the birth-pangs of doubt and is in the throes of an anguished reaction.
And much of the initial impulse, quite understandably, arises from those communities which fled the poverty and oppression of failed states dominated by religion, to find a better life in secular western democracies.
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