Saturday, July 22, 2006

All Humans are Sacred

The freedom to disagree, as envisioned by the fathers and mothers of our country, was designed to allow freedom, and not to create or support civil war. But, human nature being what it unfortunately is, they took a big chance. And our own civil war killed more Americans than any other war in history. Now, the nutty rightwing agenda is supporting, or even fomenting, civil war in Iraq. Americans have already slaughtered so many Iraqis, but bloodlust knows no reasonable limits. Proportionate to total population, the U. S. would have to lose eight million people to a foreign invader. No wonder the war is so utterly catastrophic to those poor people.

The lowest of the human nature is the "animal"-- hostile, territorial, bloody, violent, the source of murder and other atrocities and barbarities. A major reason for the "school" of human incarnation is for us to "conquer" or "vanquish" this animalnature with compassion, empathy, and other "spiritual fruits."

The human imagination is certainly capable of wishing, hoping for, and visualizing a world of peace, without interpersonal strife as violence and murder. we might be even capable, in time, of creating this ideal society, although certainly not for at least a couple of thousand years. The species is simply too immature and primitive. "Strife" as challenge is always capable of providing a positive outcome, of course; but do we have the wisdom to keep the strife of growth and abandon the strife of murder, injustice, abuse, and general violence? Apparently not yet. But better things are in store. For, although human beings grow very slowly there is some evidence that we are capable of growth, and that even societies are growing. Imho, mystics have worked, from the beginning, to plant and to cultivate the "seeds" of healthy regard for both self and others. (For much hatred rises from selfhatred.)

We had been discussing the Jehovah-myth, and how it could, with time, be cleansed away from even the Unconscious. Ignoring this myth might constitute an error of omission in an attempt to aid other people. So, imho, it must be squarely faced, acknowledged, and defeated by reason and compassion. In my book Jehovah, Good-bye: The "New Theism" of Love, this is attempted. Society needs to be alerted to how the godimage has affected us negatively, with its submyths of violence-justification and "divine" approval of war and murder-- as long as the atrocity occurs against the "right" people. We have no hope for liberation in spirituality, as a species, until all people are regarded with equal sacredness.

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