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The Problem with Beliefs
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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: November 1, 2006
Latest Update: November 1, 2006
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
The Fundamentalist Belief that They Have the One, True, and Only AnswerMany people are so concerned about what they see as the "split" in our beliefs, Reds vs. Blues, that they think that avoiding all conversation on such topics is one way to keep peace. That will not keep peace. That represses conflict and frustration. Then when someone like President Bush, or the current President of Iran, or any other quasi-leader who claims to know what ails us, people who can find any similarity with the leader's thoughts as expressed publicly, thinks that here's someone they can agree with, and they follow him/her like lemmings. That is dangerous.
One way to avoid that danger, as psychiatrists and therapists have long recognized, and sometimes, educators, too, is to talk about our conflicts and concerns. Talk to one another about what frustrates, beneath the silly "I'm right; you're wrong" dichotomy. First of all, there are few real dichotomies in nature. Consider sex: male/female. Not necessarily so. If that dichotomy were reflective of reality, we wouldn't be having all this uproar over gay marriage. Reality usually represents a range of most behaviors and characteristics, not an either/or. And even if there is somewhere an either/or, that doesn't mean either that we can change reality to make it what we think it ought to be, or that we should condemn each other to eternal punishment for being different from what we think they ought to be. St. Peter insists in his Letters to the Romans (Check my citation; I'm not a Bible scholar) that to judge other humans is arrogant in the extreme. God is the judge, not man (generic Man, that is).
"I'm right: you're wrong," in matters of religious belief, is a judgment not given unto us to make.
. . .
On Thursday, November 23, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on KCET that some religious wars do not permit of negotiation. The conditions under which he said that is so is that when one of the parties not only believes the other is wrong, but also is suicidal. What does he mean by that? As I understand it, he means that if one believes in the End of Days Apocalypse that both Christian and Muslim fundamentalists affirm, then killing and injustice do not matter because the end is near anyway and those who believe that they are right expect to avoid the apocalypse and be rewarded by status and position in their Heaven. In that sense, I agree they are suicidal. This is how suicide bombers can be motivated. If it's all over anyway, a suicide bomber is just getting to heaven a little faster.
Netanyahu, as I understand him, says that in that case there can be no deterrence because the Other doesn't care whether he lives or dies, or whether anyone else lives or dies, for all will go up in the apocalypse anyway. Netanyahu said that's why Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Kadafi of Libya WERE deterrable, because they weren't suicidal. For that reason you could negotiate them back from major disaster, like Atomic bombs. Because Netanyahu believes that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is suicidal, in the sense that it wouldn't matter in his belief system that after using an nuclear bomb, Iran would itself be annihilated in the same way. In his belief system that would simply bring the "
Discussion Questions
- What do you do if you're a fundamentalist, any variety, and yet the Apocalypse and some of what is said about the Second Coming by non-fundamentalists doesn't fit what you personally believe?
Remember that dichotomies in reality are rare. There's probably a whole range of beliefs in any given religious body, however small or large. We are human. We think for ourselves. So if you are a fundamentalist, understand the dangers of dismissing all Others to eternal damnation, and then, if you're pursuing meaningful relationships in your fundamentalist group without harboring suicidal intents to do away with the rest of us, then go right ahead and enjoy all the good parts of what you believe. Do try to discuss with some of your group that that is what is being asked of you. Not that you deny the entire set of your beliefs. Only that you let us all live together in peace until reality impinges on that freedom, not someone else's judgment.
How do I know who's right, the people that say End of Days is coming soon, or those who say that's only my belief?
Consider that you are human and you are not given to know that. And Thank God we're not given that task. Let God take care of God's business. Besides, the only reason that question is coming up is that some people who believe in End of Days are killing wantonly on the highly questionable ethical grounds that since it will all be over soon, and that those who don't believe are going to die anyway, killing wantonly is OK. NO. Killing wantonly is NOT OK. Not with any of the rest of us, and not with any God that I have studied. If you can agree with that, then you're only part of the problem to the extent that you grant your support by affiliating with orgaizations that include those who do believe in eternal damnation and wanton killing. Terrorism is wanton killing, in that it does not define an enemy, it just kills whoever it happens to catch to create fear, and weaken the resolve of those being attacked.
A belief in eternal damnation contributes to an excuse for wanton killing, since those killed will be eternally damned anyway. If you believe that, I see that as part of the problem, for it enables the terrorists to believe that they have done nothing wrong. This is based on my interpretation of Peter's Letters to the Romans. I could be wrong. But so could you. Only God knows whether He/She exists and what and whether we encounter in the hereafter. jeanne
References:
- The Reappearance of Imam Mahdi Belief in the second coming in the Muslim tradition. Fundamentalist description. This will at least give you an idea of who Imam Mahdi is and what that's about. I cannot verify the accuracy of the information for you, for I am not a Muslim religious scholar. jeanne
