France

“It is setting a high value upon our opinions, to roast men alive on account of them.”

This quote by French philosopher Michel De Montaigne suggests the same insanity that has resulted in the most recent massacre in France shows a few things to be true. One is that these sort of problems are ongoing and have been recurring for literally hundreds of years with no sign of ceasing, another is that the incidence of this insanity is not monopolised by any particular religion. At the moment of course, the ISIS extremists seem to be the most active attracting plenty of criticism from the secular community and alternate religious entities but back when the quote was offered by Montaigne during the French Renaissance it probably referred to the activities of a Christian denomination. If we are to rid ourselves of these regular occurrences then at some stage the problem requires undertaking a much deeper examination of the issue at the most fundamental level, and none can be at a more fundamental level than the concept of faith itself, and this is a good place to start.

God is not an entity who's existence can be verified by any of the five senses and as a result must be classified as having an existence in a theoretical sense only, at least until such time as his actual existence in reality can be otherwise independently verified or conclusively proven, which at the moment, it cannot. What we see with the clever, if not devious, mental construct called faith is a device that allows us to grant the status of actual reality to an entity who clearly exists in the realms of theory only, often with disastrous results. The existence of faith in such a context shows a discrepancy between factual reality and mere theory indicating a mental aberration in the minds of adherents who are mostly rational in other areas of their lives. So it is not surprising we are seeing the insanity in not only France but elsewhere, particularly when one considers that the source or basis from which these mental midgets draw their convictions is in a word, flawed. Faith is basically unsupported by evidence, which is why faith is required in the first place, and we as a society need desperately to understand the distinction that the existence of God or Allah is not necessarily a given, only a theory. Just because someone believes something to be true, no matter how fervently they believe it, doesn't mean that it is actually true in reality, no-one needs to be an Einstein to understand that there is no demonstrable correlation between belief and truth,. The major religions all have millions of followers each, Muslims believe that the millions of Christians have got it wrong while the millions of Christians believe that its the Muslims who have got it wrong, none entertaining the possibility that their own beliefs are wrong, but it follows that if one of these groups is right then the other is definitely wrong. The obvious possibility that they are all wrong appears not to register where it needs to most, in the mind of believers on either side who are of the opinion that their pet theories represent absolute truth, demonstrating a psychological imbalance in which real danger arises.

When it comes to theories, Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has a far greater body of evidence supporting it than what any of the major religions can produce to support their claims, while God himself has been sure to offer no direct indication of his favourite group or whether the Muslims are right, the Catholics, the Baptists or the local Revivalists, all claims to this exalted position in the cosmos originate with the claimants exclusively.

Most people believe that possessing faith is harmless, indeed a positive, healthy and wholesome condition for human beings, however in the words of Gershwin “it ain't necessarily so,” hints that this view may be a tad optimistic. If it stopped at the point of people enjoying a degree of comfort from its possession, few would seek to deprive people of it, but unfortunately what happens when people ascribe an actual reality to a divine being, that in reality exists only as a theory, it becomes only a short, but rather natural progression for these same people to apply the same status of actual reality, to his will, accompanied by an uncanny ability to accurately interpret it, presuming to know about, without any shadow of doubt, his likes and his dislikes, his preferences, his ethics and his favouritism for particular races, groups, religions etcetera, all together entailing a large variety of beliefs that exist in the market place of faith, but which, much like his very existence, with the absence of an authoritative adjudicator, cannot be proven. In turn we are faced with the high probability that the interpretations of God's will and intentions are a product of mere human opinion, not divine fact, simply the product of personal bias and personal preferences which are then projected onto a deity who quite possibly, and more than likely, does not exist.

However, terrorism is not the only bad effect of faith. Because of the elitism, legalism and subsequent judgementalism inherent in a structure that relies on being different and “better” than its competitors, and with the limitations of the human mind to arrive at rational conclusions and also given that human beings are susceptible to corruption and the maladies of their own psychology then human abuse of the innocent, including the abuse of millions of innocent believers themselves, many of whom never realise the price they pay, is quite a predictable outcome of faith. Having said that, I am not so naive to believe that faith, in and of itself leads to negative outcomes but it is undeniable that God is invoked as a rallying point by manipulators with a wide variety of agendas, whether recruiting for terrorist groups or in the pursuit of influence and the financial rewards influence offers. In this sense maintaining a faith of any description makes us all vulnerable to the excesses of predatory intent and agendas of all stripes.

The upshot is that genuine faith is a rarity if not totally illusory, the experience of the catholic clergy highlights the lack of actual faith possessed by not only the priests involved in the abuse of children, but also of a number of bishops extending all the way to the top of the tree where the church in concert has instigated a cover up, hardly an indicator of any hint of relationship with the creator of the universe, let alone indicating their qualification as his mouthpiece on planet earth. Returning to the point, the entire goal of the cover up is to maintain face, the humanly inspired imperative to keep up appearances and the efforts to “look good” however come with some costs, those being the sacrifice of all spiritual principles and ideals, repentance, compassion, justice, truth, honesty and love are completely abandoned in the pursuit of looking good, effectively dispensing with any claim of a genuine faith. Of course the method of measurement in ascertaining the level of faith, is the believers fidelity to the teachings, in this regard actions speak much louder than words, as noted by the ancient philosopher Euripides “judge a tree by its fruit, not by its leaves.” Yet deception, in the form of cover up is the standard behavioural default adopted by churches in most if not all cases, avoiding embarrassment is the goal regardless of whether the issue is serious or relatively trivial, the fruit however, is consistent either way, a lie is a lie is a lie, on display, for all the world to see.

Neither the suicide bomber or the murdering terrorists exhibit any sort of faith, only stupidity on the grandest scale. Their actions rather demonstrate the power of mental conditioning, a human psychological shortcoming that underpins much of so called religious belief which I suspect rests mostly on geographical factors and is based more on genuine hope as opposed to an artificial and inauthentic faith, which is at least a more reasonable stance and certainly more legitimate from a rational perspective. In the current context we would all be far safer and better off if doubt was generally more highly regarded as the greater virtue than a faith that is suspect from a common sense perspective and often counter productive to human happiness. If our world is to become safer we need to realise that the maintenance of even the most moderate religious systems provide a nursery for the lunatics among us and the leverage for the unscrupulous to take full advantage quite regardless of the average believer's good moral intent, which I have no doubt, the vast majority of believers share. It obviously pays to be discerning when charismatic potential leaders emerge, as Henry David Thoreau suggests “when you knock, ask for God---none of the servants.”

At the end of the day, whether a person is a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist or Hindu we all share the same heritage, all of us coming from the same source. The main negative aspect of religion is that it tends to divide whereas a common recognition of our shared humanity and origins tends to unite us, hopefully to a point where its possible that human respect becomes the highest priority trumping the religious divide along with the elitism and legalism that potentially threaten us all.