A famous general of the German army, Erwin Rommel said: “One man is a genius; one million people are a mass of fools.”
450 thousand years ago something changed. Someone or something made possible the existence of man. The only difference between man and animal is the reason. This makes us be more powerful than the rest of beings on Earth, but not quite smart enough to know the answers to all questions. Man’s existence and origins are the missing chain of science that no one can reveal.
450 thousand years ago when the primitive man didn’t know anything what a phenomenon of nature represents, he considered the divinity responsible for inexplicable things, because of his need to believe in something higher. Thus was created the first religion, the Animism. People have chosen a god to represent each element from nature; the first religion was a polytheist one.
The man, a rational animal, mastered by feelings and the fear of inferiority, dedicated his soul to gods, in order to ensure himself that he is protected by something divine and immortal.
Astral religions represent the second part of the history of religions. 8000 years ago, when the human mind began to make a distinction between instincts and ration, the man tried to learn more about the environment and the religion became a projection of the stars. The Sumerians noticed that the stars return to their initial position after a certain time.
The modernism is the third stage of religion, a phase that reflects our current beliefs. The faith in divinity is divided into several religions, the most important being the Christianity and Islamism.
Each religion has its own way to perceive the world and human acts. This difference still leads to wars and religious distinctions between nations.
The first sacred book dates from the Sumerians era and it has been found 4000 years ago, being entitled: “Gilgamesh Odyssey”. Egyptians, a people highly evolved regarding their knowledge in medicine, astrology and exact sciences modified the sacred book according to their beliefs, naming it: “The book of deaths”. Thus, 2500 years before our era, appeared a new sacred book that was celebrating the gods, telling their acts of greatness.
The third sacred book was written by an ordinary man, who was raised by the pharaoh’s daughter, named Moses. As he was having access to all the manuscripts of the Emperor, he brought changes to the sacred text, initiating a new religion, the Christianity and its words, the Bible.
The Christianity is a religion originated in Asia, spread in the world by the Roman Empire, which brings a message that is higher than the differences between nations and people, races or social status. The Christian message represents the word of God and it has such popularity because it was promoting initially a religion of the poor ones, of the offended and oppressed ones by others or by faith, but also because it focuses on the great human virtues of peace and especially on love.
The Christianity developed from Judaism, where the faith in Yahweh was based on ransom sacrifice. In Christianity was important the tolerance to other religions or against the existence of administrative power in the name of the supreme power that was good and mild.
The proclamation of Christianity as a national religion was purely political act undertaken by Emperor Constantine the Great, not from religious vocation but from its political exclusive interests, issue proved by the fact that the Emperor died without being himself a Christian.
Origenes, a Greek philosopher, considered God as being an immaterial entity, perfect and eternal. The analysis of the Old and New Testament reflects the fact that the Christianity is a polytheist religion, since it focuses on three great powers: God-Father, God-Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ becomes in its conception a second God, being created by God, the Father, who doesn’t want to have any connection with the material world. Jesus Christ has the mission to recreate the material world, leading to the idea of the world’s successive creation, with a beginning and an end.
The Christianity was implemented as the main religion to the Roman soldiers and to the poor ones, as they were considered slaves, needing something or someone to protect and help them. Until the Christianity became a unique national religion, it was fed by oriental sources. The systematic persecutions, the religious fight against oriental cults, started once with the victory and expansion of Christianity. The Roman emperors Augustus, Nero and Traian were mastering a large mass of people through religion, completing their political games and expansion.
The Koran the Islam sacred book was conceived 600 years before Christ, being written by Muhammad. The tradition, more legendary than mythological, states that Muhammad was transported to heaven by a horse with the head of a woman and a peacock tail, becoming a sacred person.
The Sumerians have a similar legend: Enkidu said that he was taken to heaven by a great bird, which took him to gods.
It can be found such a resemblance in Christianity, too: Jesus rises to Haven.
Three different religion have many similarities, including the connection between heaven and earth where someone or something comes out of the sky in various forms, which are described by people in different forms, although nobody ever seen a god. People at that time had no knowledge and they were considering the divinity responsible for all the inexplicable things.
In all religions and all sacred books are resemblances such as the eternal struggle between good and evil, light and dark, so all have the same basis, but they are interpreted differently.
The Middle Age represents the most important time where all the sciences and human evolution become stagnant. This black era represents the transition from slavery to feudalism, where the church and the priests owned the absolute power in the state. All the Christian nations were led by Vatican, paying a tribute in order to be allowed to start a war or to organize their internal life.
From the year 476 to 1453 (when took place the fall of Constantinople), for almost 100 years, the church forbade the writing with more than 5 digits, as a number with 6 digits was considered the number of Satan. Many of the people’s actions were considered as being against the state and they were oppressed or assassinated. Galileo Galilei said that the Earth is round and he has been threatened by the Vatican that he will be burned on the pyre for his statement. He was forced to abide in a public court and refute this hypothesis, as well as the fact that the Earth is round and moves. After he said in front of the crowd that his statement is not true, he whispered: “E pur si move” (“And still, it moves”), which proves that people had no right even to express their views, because the church and priests were forbidden them to think. Mathematics, medicine, astrology and all the sciences then known were stalled. By the Renaissance, the world has known no advance in any area, having only the knowledge inherited from Antiquity.
Terrorism and religion – The pleasure of self-destruction
The religion has had and still has a negative effect on humankind, making differences of race and leading to crimes in society and wars.
The Koran speaks to Muslims about Jihad, the sacred war that will make them become the masters of the world, as their religion will dominate.
Nowadays, the religion doesn’t show anymore its true face, leaving the political games to solve everything. In Iraq and Afghanistan are still wars determined by economy and religion. Te war between Christians and Muslims started once with the attack that took place on November, 11, in the year 2001 from United States, continued by the war from Iraq, Afghanistan and the attack from Spain.
The violence promoted by the Koran and Bible
Some people try to justify the recent acts of terrorism, appealing to images of violence from the Bible. Some argue that the recent acts of violence in the name of Allah are not different from the violence of the old Israel or those of the medieval church leaders. In these cases, the violence was used to kill those who were considered enemies of God. Many well known people who studied the religion make associations with the violent stories from the Bible, saying that: “The Bible presents also stories of violence committed in the name of God. The God presented in the first books of the Bible is indeed cruel regarding the support he gives to Israel, drowning their enemies into the sea”.
The argument that violence presented in the Koran is different from the one found in the Bible is usually used to exonerate the recent acts of violence. For example, in another newspaper article published in Newsweek, in England and entitled: “Why do they hate us: the roots of Islam hate- what can we do”, the Muslim professor Freed Zakaria wrote: “The historic Paul Johnson argued that Islam is intrinsically an intolerant and violent religion. Other experts disagree, claiming that Islam condemns the massacre of the innocence ones and condemns the suicide. Nothing will be solved by searching the ‘true Islam” or by mentioning the Koran. This is a great book, full of poetry and contradictions. Here you can find war convictions and incitement to war, beautiful expressions of tolerance and harsh against the ones who don’t believe in Allah. Its mentions tell us more things about the person who selected the passages than about Islam. Every religion is compatible with what is best and what is worst in human being. Down through history, the Christianity has supported the Inquisition and the anti Semitism, but also human rights and social welfare. ”
Is this a correct assessment of the Koran and teachings of the Bible? Is the Bible teaching on violence not different from those of the Koran? Does the Koran teach in the same time about war and peace, tolerance and intolerance? The last one is a collection of traditions relating to Muhammad’s teachings, transmitted by trustworthy sources.
The hatred leads to terrorism
The humiliation experimented by Muslims in the last two centuries is one of the factors that leads to terrorism. In recent years, Muslims were humiliated not only by Jews in Palestine, but also by the Christian Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo, by the Christians in Chechnya and by those from Pakistan.
For some Muslims is hard to accept the shame of their international failure. After being a super power for over a thousand years, believing that Allah has empowered them to eliminate the Christians and Jews and to rule the world, they find themselves today leaded politically and controlled economically by nations formed in most part by “pagans”.
The worried Muslims want to punish America for its anti-Islamic politics, by attacking people even “in their safe zones”. This will result in forcing America “to pay more and play less” by spending billions of dollars in fighting against terrorism inside and outside the country.
The threat increases because of the development of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, in Arab countries as Iraq, Iran and Libya.
Conclusion
Religion is the only thing that leads to crimes, attacks, wars and mass destructions. If we would ask ourselves some questions related to religion, we would be closer to the truth. The Christians and Muslims claim that they are right and that their God is the real one, but still, both commit crimes that are not allowed by their religion, although they consider themselves as being loyal to God.
References
- Biserica in Invocutie – Victor Kernbach 1984 – Editura Politica
- Is Religion the Problem?- Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara, Year 2004
- Bockstette, Carsten: “Jihadist Terrorist Use of Strategic Communication Management Techniques” George C. Marshall Center for European Security Studies Occasional Paper
- Laqueur, Walter. No End to War – Terrorism in the 21st century, New York, 2003, ISBN 0-8264-1435-4
- Sunga, Lyal S., US Anti-Terrorism Policy and Asia’s Options, in Johannen, Smith and Gomez, (eds.) September 11 & Political Freedoms: Asian Perspectives (Select) (2002) 242-264.
