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| EMTs wheel away a Sikh Temple shooting victim. |
It’s been hard to stomach the news this week:
·
Six murdered at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin.
·
Gunmen in Gaza kill more than a dozen
people.
·
Mosque burned down in Missouri.
To heighten the nausea, the pastor of Westboro
Baptist Church – whose members regularly picket the funerals of American
soldiers killed in the Middle East – tweeted that God had caused the murders at
the Sikh Temple.
Fred Phelps, who leads the congregation, called the
murders “punishment” for the treatment his church had received in its Wisconsin
home.
Such irrational claims, and the wanton shootings
themselves, are symptoms of a serious misunderstanding that has plagued mankind
for millennia: the confusion between religion and belief. They have nothing in common.
Belief is the willingness to accept something as
truth without a single fact. Virtually
all beliefs are similar, dealing with ways for people to function in this world
for the betterment of themselves and humanity.
Religions are something else.
Religion is an organized system, often with various
props such as “sacred” books and clothing.
It often includes teachers, identified by various titles, and a usually
mythological history along with pretentious claims about afterlife and
morality. It needs money to survive and
yearns for power.
A belief may be connected to a religion, but doesn’t
have to be. After all, a true believer
can insist a particular soccer player is the best in the world, regardless of
facts mustered by someone who disagrees.
Beliefs are eternal. Earliest
humans, for example, seemed to have beliefs about an afterlife, just as we do
today.
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| Osiris |
A religion on the other hand may have no
beliefs. Unitarians, for example, have
none. Religion is merely an
artificial framework that beliefs can be hung on for a relatively brief time
period.
Religions come and go. No one worships Osiris anymore, or Baal,
Marduk or a myriad other once-esteemed, imaginary deities. In the distant future, the same will be true
for the cherished gods of today.
Religions have a lifespan, just like everything else, including the
universe.
Beliefs don’t need defending, since they require no
facts. You can believe anything you
want. As Thomas Jefferson asked, “Why
should I care what my neighbor believes?”
Belief affects no one but the individual who
believes it. It has no meaning outside of believers. If you don’t believe that your late uncle can
be reborn as a cow, then a cow is merely another animal. Heaven doesn’t exist to a non-believer and is
ardently real to a believer.
On the other hand, religion seeks power and control,
to dictates thinking and behavior. It
needs weapons and followers to use those weapons on its behalf. Religion will happily kill anyone who
professes alternative ideas in order to maintain its status in society.
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| Arsonists torched this mosque in Missouri. |
That’s why vicious members of any religion are apt
to pick up a gun and shoot members of other religions. No religion is exempt. Even normally peaceful Buddhists have gotten
in battles with Hindus. We all know
about the fights between Sunnis and Shi’ites, Protestants and Catholics, Jews
and Muslims etc.
As long as people continue to confuse religion and
belief, that carnage will not cease until either everyone is dead or completely
sickened by it enough to stop.
Long-time
religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious
history. He also speaks at various
religious organizations throughout Florida.
You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net. He is the author of the famed Unauthorized
Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel
Writers Get Their Information; Noel:
The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative
Religion. His books are available on Amazon.com,
Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.
He can also be followed on Twitter.
You
can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at
http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1
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