Religious Distinctions Damage Society

Shari Lewis

A dear friend who is also on Facebook recently shared a post celebrating the life of entertainer extraordinaire Shari Lewis, who died 20 years ago.  My friend did so, not to highlight Lewis’ life as a ventriloquist, author and TV performer, but because Lewis was Jewish.

In doing so, unintentionally, my friend continued the undermining of society.

Lewis’ religion was not what made her either successful or famous.  That was talent.  She was not talented because she was Jewish.  Her religion, in fact, was completely irrelevant to her ability to manipulate her famed puppet Lamb Chop or to conduct a symphony orchestra.

If religion mattered, then Jews would all be successful.  In reality, they constitute 0.2 percent of the world’s population.  Those who have been successful can thank DNA and ethnicity, not religion.

Jewish ghetto in Russia

Long kept outside Christian society, Jews developed their own culture, including humor, while emphasizing education.  They needed literacy to scour their holy books to find the “reason” why they were being mistreated.  Because the Second Commandment banned graven images, they eschewed art and opted for music.

As a result, Jews have achieved success principally in the liberal arts and science.  They have won more Nobel Prizes than their small numbers might imply.  However, religion had nothing to do with it.  They have succeeded in entertainment, with such figures as Jack Benny, Sid Caesar, Barbra Streisand, Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld and so many more.

Freud

However, not one achieved fame because of religion. 

In fact, most have little to nothing to do with their birth religion.  That’s true regardless of the area of success. Jews assimilate and, as a result, often shed trappings of the ancient belief.  Such world-renowned scholars like Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx – whose ideas dominated the last century – were Jewish in name only.  They did not practice.  Indeed, the religion meant nothing to them.  They were products of genetics and culture.

In fact, if Jewish religious leaders had their way, Jews would spend their days in the synagogue, as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof notes in the song “If I were a Rich Man.”  To them, success has always been counted in prayers, not in popularity.

Reles

Besides, what’s success?  Shari Lewis was heralded, but so was Arthur Flegenheimer, who is better known as the vicious bootlegger Dutch Schultz, the subject of books and movies.  Abe “Kid Twist” Reles was feted, too, all based on his active role in organized crime's Murder Inc.  during the 1930s and 1940s.  His death really garnered attention: he was tossed out a hotel window prior to testifying. Meyer Lansky was portrayed in The Godfather.  The only time he recognized his birth religion was when he tried to escape U.S. law by seeking citizenship in Israel.  Authorities there denied his request.  And don’t overlook Bernie Madoff, Ivan Boesky and other financial felons.

Judaism didn’t make them criminals any more than it made Lewis a star on children’s programming or Sandy Koufax a great baseball pitcher.

Most significantly, touting the religion of any successful person isn’t just wrong, it undermines society.

We all belong to the only surviving species of humans.  There are two genders: male and female.  That’s it.  Everything else serves only to separate and divide.  As long as people point at irrelevant distinctions like someone’s beliefs, we will continue to pretend such differences matter. In reality, they only serve as badges for elitists and bigots of all types, who gleefully divide everyone into “we” and “they.” While everyone seemingly offers lip service to the ideas of equality, the concept vanishes as soon as a distinction is made, to the detriment of all of us.

Eastern Orthodox Patriarch

In truth, we are all the same, regardless of religion, skin complexion, ethnic origin, politics, disability and anything else someone can conjure up. 

Religion exists totally to provide absurd answers for unanswerable questions.  It creates imaginary deities to “solve” insolvable concerns.  Success in religion involves becoming part of the hierarchy of the faith, such as a head rabbi, pope, patriarch and the like.  It never made anyone successful in a secular field.

That requires talent combined with timing, regardless of faith.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history with an occasional foray into American culture.  He holds an ABD in American Studies from Case Western Reserve University.   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.  A recent book, Passover in Prison, which details abuse of Jewish inmates in American prisons.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

Religious History Undermines Political Claims

For most of my lives, I have been reading and writing about religious history.  My interest has always been in how a belief developed, not in its accuracy.  After all, no one has enough knowledge to know a belief is “true” or not.  That would require post-life experience to prove there’s a heaven or hell, a god or anything else people believe in. 

By studying history, religious historians have shown how beliefs arise, what they are based on and what they absorbed from other faiths.  That’s good enough,

The information also serves as a counter against claimants of various faiths who insist that their belief is “true” and, therefore, everyone else is wrong.

That’s nonsense.

Ancient Egyptian monotheism

For starters, all modern beliefs are derived from older faiths.  Judaism drew upon the ancient Canaanite and Egyptian concepts.  Christianity got its inspiration from Judaism and Greek ideas, while Islam amalgamated Judaism, Christianity and existing Middle Eastern pagan faiths.  Judaism is the oldest surviving of those age-old beliefs.  Christianity is the last surviving mystery religion, once so popular in the Roman Empire.

That reality does not make any of those beliefs true or false.  It simply explains their origins.  Claiming a modern religion is correct necessitates claiming that the precursor faiths are also correct.

Mary Baker Eddy

No religion appeared out of thin air.  They all needed a spark, some event or individual to galvanize belief.  You might recognize many of the names of religious leaders: Buddha, Zoroaster, Moses, Jesus/Paul, Lao Tzu, Confucius, Muhammad, Báb/Bahá’u’lláh. Joseph Smith and Mary Baker Eddy, to name some of the most prominent.  There are others whose religions have faded away, including Jacob Frank and Sabbatai Zevi.

Events that galvanized a faith included the Hebrew slaves leaving Egypt (which hasn’t been proven historically, but is real to Jews), Jesus’ crucifixion (also not proven historically but real to Christians), the hegira (Muhammad’s escape from Mecca to Yathrib) and the death of Báb, which led to the Baha’i faith.

Thus inspired, followers were sure that the fledgling belief had a basis in reality.

Maybe.

After all, historical research has rarely confirmed religious claims.  Worse, woefully little is known of the lives of Buddha, Zoroaster, Moses or Jesus, for example.  Much of what is still touted as truth has been filtered through believers, creating more myths than facts.

Statue of Buddha

Besides, all the beliefs vary, which makes it hard for any to claim some kind of divine imprint.  Christianity may be the world’s largest faith, but Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism all have at least 1 billion followers, which must be an indication of their strength and “divine” support.

In some cases, they are diametrically opposed and impossible to reconcile.  That’s one reason there are conflicts between them.  Ironically, they are all basically similar: they each offer a way of life built around harmony and cooperation.  Unfortunately, those are abstract concepts that fail to stop violence and hatred.

(Please read Comparative Religion for Dummies, which illustrates how similar the three major monotheistic faiths are.)

All beliefs change.  For example, the idea that the Bible is 100 percent correct developed in the 1800s because of new research that demonstrated it wasn’t.  Prior to that, the Bible was recognized as a moral and ethical guide, not an encyclopedia of facts.  The Judaism of today does not resemble the Judaism of Moses, nor does Christianity correspond to what Paul taught. 

Then, too, all of these faiths started small and usually as spinoffs of existing religions. Christianity was a sect of Judaism; Baha’i, a sect of Islam; Latter Day Saints, a sect of Christianity; and so on.  Farsi developed as a counter to existing Persian faiths.  Buddha was trying to clean up Hinduism and ended up as the “enlightened” center of a different belief.  Muhammad was instilling a monotheistic view into his culture.

And so on.

Everyone involved in creating a religion did so with the highest ideals and a firm conviction of heavenly support.

Whether that’s true or not does not matter. 

The maelstrom of religious ideas explains why the founders of this country opted for freedom of religion rather than get caught up in the ever-whirling battles between believers.  That may have been the wisest decision that group of men ever made.  Look at what took place when that didn’t happen: the endless enmity between India and Pakistan; Israel and its Muslim counterparts; and so on.

Crusades

History provides clear illustration of similar events, especially between monotheistic faiths.  In fact, Christianity was at least in part engendered as the result of wars led by Jewish zealots against the Romans.

Too many of today’s run of politicians, each vying to be the most ignorant, continue to try to shove their beliefs down the throats of Americans.  They run for office, touting their faith, without the slightest indication that they understand how and why that belief developed and its place among the 4,600 religions known to exist.

Sen. Ted Cruz sermonizing

They are convinced of the rectitude of their beliefs, and the “errors” of alternative faith, apparently unaware that all faiths have multiple sects, each with differing views.  Nor do they understand what their religion truly believes or the similarities between all faiths.

As such, they are continuing to heighten animosities between religions, creating the kind of combative society exactly the opposite of what their beliefs hope to inspire.

One solution would be to return religious history to the classroom, which was allowed in the past, but was blocked by religious fanaticism.  Another would be to ban religious discussion in political campaigns.  A third would be to continually vote against anyone announcing plans to impose any religious idea on constituents or promising to follow the dictates of faith rather than the needs of society.

Until proof exist for any religion – claims in a “holy” book are the exact opposite of proof – the best choice is ensuring that religion remains a private choice and not a requirement.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history with an occasional foray into American culture.  He holds an ABD in American Studies from Case Western Reserve University.   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.  A recent book, Passover in Prison, which details abuse of Jewish inmates in American prisons.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.