The deluded religious belief that any people or nation or church is a "chosen" people is the root of almost all our troubles. So is the lunacy of believing in "Truth" revealed through one special prophet to one special peoples and/or tribe, be they Jews, Muslims or American Evangelical Christians, or conservative Roman Catholics who believe in the special primacy of their popes.
Eliminate willful self-serving tribal religious delusion from the globe and there might be hope for the survival of the human race. Combine tribalism and religious conviction with nukes and the "right" to exploit the earth and disaster looms.
It's no accident that the most dangerous cultures today are also the most religiously observant societies. The ultra-religiously observant USA embraces perpetual war as a way of life. With our notion of "exceptionalism," we fear the "other" who might challenge our notion of having been chosen by God for some special task.
This is a great article and I urge you to spend the time to read all of it. However I will let you know that this next part is my favorite portion.
Someday these "special" and "chosen" countries will cease to exist as will all nation states. Someday they will not even be remembered because all things pass from time into oblivion, nor will their "holy" books and "holy" places exist forever, simple geology will take care of that. What makes them dangerous today is their shared religious delusion that they are somehow essential and eternal.
I know that for religious people this is a very difficult concept to grasp, that their nation, and even their religion, may someday disappear into the mists of time, but anybody who has studied even junior high school history cannot deny the reality of that statement.
I remember once making a born again Christian hopping mad at me for referring to his religion as a mythology.
"No it is not!" he said.
"You're right." I replied. "It's not a mythology, today. But someday it WILL be, unless of course it is not remembered at all."
I was kind of a jerk in those days, and loved to rattle people's cages concerning their sacred cows. I am much more mellow, and less combative, these days but the truth of my prediction is no less valid.
What has to be remembered is that thousands of years ago armies of "chosen" warriors marched to war after giving offerings to,and receiving the blessing from, Gods that you and I have never even heard of. Yet they had complete faith that these long forgotten deities would keep them safe, or provide a place for their spirit to reside if they were felled in battle.
Millions have died under the swords of armies who believed that their gods had given them license to destroy those who dared to worship at "sacrilegious" altars. And that faith allowed them to do so without even a hint of guilt at the wholesale murder of entire civilizations.
Now be honest, from that time to this, has mankind REALLY evolved that much? And if not, why not?
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