By Sid Schwab / Herald Columnist
Could it be, given God’s apparent penchant for mass murder and genocide, having wiped all of humanity except for one family on one occasion and, later, all the first-born sons of Egyptian mothers, citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s wife, etc., that the horrifying bloodbath now happening, yet again, in the Middle East, is going according to His plan?
In any case, going back far enough, it began with religious hatred.
If the inevitability of death had caused people to realize what a rare gift life is and how its brevity calls us to make the most of it — charitably, empathetically, with open hearts — there’d have been no need for religion. Instead, imperfectly as we’ve evolved, or, if you prefer, were created, we’re wasting this incalculable wonder, mostly in the name of one religion or another.
My Jewish heritage probably follows a straight line back to Adam and Eve, who can’t have existed. And although I always considered Bible stories purposefully allegorical, raised in a semi-religious family and having gone to Sunday school for a dozen or so years, I was taught to believe in God. Said my bedtime sh’mas and God-blesses for Gammy and Grandpa, Mommy and Daddy, my brother and sister, and Dougie McCarty.
As I grew up, though, it became increasingly difficult to reconcile the misery we see in the world with an all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving God. Childhood cancers, starvation, floods and earthquakes, hemorrhoids and autoimmune diseases. Nor did it make sense to blame it on Uncle Adam and Aunt Eve taking advice from a snake. Only a child abuser would punish all future generations for the equivalent of reading a naughty book. If a creator exists he/she/it/they can’t be as described in the Bible. Those were the thoughts. In my (God-given) brain.
With hundreds of religions in the world invoking thousands of gods, believers in whom are as certain of the supremacy of theirs as are the believers in all the others, how can any claim exclusivity? Especially those who commit mass murder and genocides in the name of whoever it is they pray to. When I lost two nieces, each in their 20s — each beautiful in form and spirit, brilliant and loving, the kind that everyone considered their best friend — one in a tragic accident, the other from a sudden illness, I saw no godly plan. If it was, it was of someone I wouldn’t invite to dinner.
Currently watching a relative in their 90s fading into non-existence, requiring help to do literally everything from toileting to eating, unaware of who or where they are, I see anything but loving, wise, perfect creation. I do, though, see a health care system failing because, say the God-fearing, to provide more would be godless communism.
Oh, but Stalin and Pol Pot were atheists, you say. And religions and religious people have done many good things. True. But I’d bet believers who do good because it’s right, rather than for promise of heavenly reward or fear of eternal punishment do so because it’s who they are, regardless of which texts or traditions they hold holy. It’s true of my religious friends. And of atheists I know, who employ useful skepticism, who understand science, vote for decent people, give time and money to causes that help the needy, call out lies and liars, love their families.
Atheists weren’t the ones who put into office the most ungodly man ever called “president” and see in him the handiwork of their God; a man who lived his entire life in direct opposition to the teachings of Christ and still does. No, that would be people who consider themselves the best Christians, the most deserving and put-upon of all Americans, who’d force their beliefs on all others and who love to imagine other-believers burning in Hell for all eternity, if not longer.
They’re also the ones spreading lies about $6 billion of taxpayer money President Biden sent to Iran, who’s spending it to fund Hamas. It isn’t. He didn’t. They’re not. Because not a penny has gone anywhere. The party of God is the party of liars (The Hill: tinyurl.com/6bill4u). (Editor’s note: As of Thursday morning, the U.S. and Qatar had agreed to again block Iran’s access to the account holding Iranian revenue from crude oil sales.)
The horrors in Israel and Gaza have escaped all attempts at resolution. Though Trump and his idolators blame it on President Biden, and others blame Trump’s failure when he went to son-in-law Jared, at the heart of this latest, ghastly Middle East bloodshed is religion, bastardized through centuries into self-righteous hate. Likewise the Holocaust, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem (actual) witch trials, slavery, forcing birth and refusing to succor the born.
As if a god worth honoring would allow any of that. How nice if all believers would accept theirs as their own choice and respect the choices of others as equally valid. Because they are.
The sunsets are spectacular around here; the mountains and old-growth forests; the waters, and, when visible, the night sky. Also, my grandchildren are a delight.
Email Sid Schwab at columnsid@gmail.com.
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