Letters to the Editor
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You know what I like about humans?
They are just so wise.
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Actually --
-- in a very real way the Jewish faith is to blame for ONE thing: the creation of "God". Before "God", all societies (sans a brief experimental period in Egypt) came with a multitude of gods, all of which had jobs. Gods of War, Gods of Love, Gods of Sun, Gods of Thunder.
Now, we have ONE God, who is out of a job and apparently schizophrenic, since he is telling an awful lot of people that THEY are the chosen ones.
God: "What the hell do you want from me? I created the UNIVERSE, okay? That was difficult. It took me six days, and you better believe that my days aren't like yours. For one, I ran around the better part of the first day blind, until I invented light. Nearly tripped over a couple of moons, too. You expect me to RUN the bloody thing, too? Faith, come into my office and pick up a notepad. I have the urge to explain myself to my creation."
Also, sorry everybody, since the Jews DID invent God, I think he belongs to them. It's a copyright issue and probably protected by the Berne Act. God wasn't really around in other parts of the world, was he? Nope. He just went to that little bit of desert right between the superpowers of the time, Egypt and Babylon, revealed himself to oppressed slaves and went: "Hey, kids, you know something. I chose you, eh, for a bit more suffering, but you know what? It'll be fun! Well, for me at least. You guys -- you get to walk around in a 100 mile desert stretch for 40 years, yep, that's right, your entire people, they will just walk around in circles and circles, because I haven't had time to invent the Rand-McNally map."
Now, Christianity is just a Jewish sect that HAPPENED to grow over time to eclipse the original belief. Let's call it Judaism 2.0. And Islam, well, those kids gave themselves another upgrade, and so we shall call it Judaism 3.0.
But here's the thing: we all know that NOTHING really works until you get to version 3.11.
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TerribleTeuton, you are right
monotheism was a Big Mistake. before that, you had your god, i had mine. everyone was Chosen. proselytizing made no sense. even the romans, who were tolerant of precious little, were tolerant (to a point) of other religions. they did demand that the jews worship caesar as a god and after 1500 years of being stubborn, they continued. by this time i have so many obstinacy genes that it's really impossible to change. even the mormons saw that (in a recent religious issue). finally he resorted to calling me bitter and unhappy, which paradoxically made me Very Happy. unfortunately He's here already. nothing you can do about it. here's a joke. one that got lenny bruce arrested - ostensibly for obscenity but actually for blasphemy. "Yes, we did it. me and my family. and i'll tell you something more. if He comes again, we'll kill Him again". i find it very funny. what a lot of nerve! crazy!
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Political Theology
Any Westerner laboring under the illusion of a secular politics without influence from the divine texts of yore is a more dangerous example of anachronistic thinking than, perhaps, even the people he or she continues to ignore. The "Bible as the Literal Word of God" is not, despite the best efforts of modern philosophers and thinkers, a quaintly fading belief system without impact on this United States and its governance. To the contrary, it is the core, unshakable belief of the most reliable group of voters in our country today and the base of the Republican Party. Indeed, with the possible exception of some European liberal democracies, there is hardly a nation-state on Earth that is not at least susceptible to rule by religious fanatics, with all the potential for mindless havoc that entails.
While the leaders of the "faiths" have clearly had ulterior motives for their actions, the true believer need only meticulously obey the tenets of the faith, as interpreted by its patriarch, to reap the ultimate, heavenly reward. Any action in pursuit of this is deemed both acceptable and necessary, and woe be unto he or she who stands in the way. The problems our societies face might have some chance of remedy, in a rational world. Wouldn't it be nice if we lived in such a place?
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The world today
"Behind the hubris of the Iraq invasion was a weird mix of literalist born-again Christianity and neoconservative ideology."
Indeed. We're now hearing updated versions of why the war was all about oil after all. While not entirely off the mark, these analyses miss a central truth. All of the reasons initially touted--WMD, oil, the terrible tyrant, Mid. East strategy--are proximate. Ultimately, America invaded Iraq because Americans elected a messianic Christian for president and Niccolo Machiavelli for vice president. That's what the long view histories will deduce. If we are to outline how religion intersects with politics today, we must understand "political authority based on a revealed divine nexus" in Christian America as much as in the Islamic context.
Something of a counter-point, though. Miller refers to the West without differentiation. Isn't it fair to say that "the inevitability of secularization" has actually been prove true for Europeans (or at least the non-immigrant majorities in Europe)? If the sixteenth century wasn't enough, did not the German cataclysm of the twentieth finally put an end to politics by Grand Ideology in Europe? Perhaps that's only to indulge in the fairy tale again (racialist nationalism certainly may not be dead in European). So this maybe: Europe proves modern America was not inevitable (secularism, both in law and in hearts and minds, may basically win the day in developed societies); America proves modern Europe was not inevitable (pronounced religiousity may still persist or even flourish in a developed society).
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Divine Politics
I think the key to what both religion and politics have in common is the need for power to influence. In both of these concepts Greed and Corruption are the handmaidens to this lust.
Its all so very human, and may well have genetic drives. Certainly the fear of mortality plays a role in the persuasion of religious belief, although no one gives much thought to how boring eternity would be locked in the same ego. There is also an inherent conflict that these two instruments want to create change but do not want to have what they created changed.
That so many of us question such authority is refreshing, and gives some hope that humans just might evolved some system for cohabitation on this ever shrinking planet that does not involve slavery of mind or body. That is about as close to Divinity as we could ever hope to get.