I recently had a (very) brief exchange with a co-worker regarding my views on religion. I had told him that I had put the infamous Danish cartoons on my blog and made some comment about the riots that have raged in the Muslim world over them. He then said asked if I felt negatively about Christianity as well. I told him that I did. I told him that I was an equal opportunity disliker of religion. I went so far as to say that I'd love to see religion disappear totally. His retort was a common one, namely, that, even if religion suddenly disappeared, we would still have many things to kill each other over.
This is most certainly true. There'd still be wars over land and oil, for example. Race and gender too would still divide humanity. But no religion means less ammunition for all-out violence and hatred. Look at the riots in Nigeria. Muslims killing Christians (including the beating of children to death as the killing of at least one priest in his church) and burning churches. A man had a tire thrown around him, gas poured on him, and was set ablaze. According to this report, 17 people have died, 30 churches raze as well as 5 hotels. And then there's this:
Felix Usman, the priest in charge of St Augustine's Catholic Church in Maiduguri, said he was lucky to escape when his church was attacked and burned by protesters. Another colleague, Matthew Gajere, in charge of St Rita's Catholic Church, was burned to death by rioters inside his church, Usman said.
Don't forget that in the early days of this month, Christians in Nigeria saw this coming.
An umbrella Nigerian Christian body based in the majority Muslim north has condemned the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
Even though the cartoons were not the voice of Nigerian Christians, religion provided the fuel for the fire of inter-religious hatred. And the Christians there aren't turning the other cheek:
Christian mobs rampaged through a southern Nigerian city Tuesday, burning mosques and killing several people in an outbreak of anti-Muslim violence that followed deadly protests against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad over the weekend.
Residents and witnesses in the southern, predominantly Christian city of Onitsha said several Muslims with origins in the north were beaten to death by mobs which also burned two mosques there.
Imagine being able to take away a person's ability to hate someone else just by virtue of that other person's religion. Imagine removing the most combustible of fuels – religion - from conflicts that otherwise have nothing to do with people's beliefs in a deity and instead being able to concentrate on the true grievances.
People of different religions and of no religion at all get along quite well in our country. Perfect? No. But we don't have suicide bombers nor do we have pogroms and the like. Christians didn't riot in the streets over The Last Temptation of Christ. But this isn't because there's anything inherent in Christianity itself, it's because secularism has been pounding away at it for hundreds of years. If it hadn't, there can be little doubt that Christianity would be as barbaric as it was in the Middle Ages. The founders of our country studied history. They knew what the wars of religion did to Europe a couple centuries previous to theirs. I think they created a secular state because they knew exactly what a powder keg religion can be and how it can be used to deter peace.
If religion were to suddenly disappear, the world would magically turn into a perfect and perfectly peaceful place. But it sure would go a long way.
No comments:
Post a Comment