Religion - The Politician's Playground

All religions have gone through an almost identical chequered history, as mentioned by you. Not one theocracy or religious institution has been spared of these acts in their evolution to be “the one true faith of God”.
The only difference is the geopolitics, traditions etc.

The prophets are not to blame for the “state of God” in the mind of man today.
What is true, what is false, who was “godly”, who was “satanic”- is up to the leaders to “propagate and educate” (true or false) using the power of the media, politics, economics and Law.

It has always been the nature of man to be tempted to “trade” his way into anything – even heaven, at least in the eyes of society.
Politicians, being in their “trade”, are in a popularity contest and hence, would use any means to gain power- unless he has a foundation of moral/ intellectual/ philosophical ideals.
Those who have these qualities will be remembered in history as true leaders, visionaries and “prophets”.

The majority though, would buy themselves their popularity through whatever means, even if it means that they have to be stooges of the real players. Sadly, the vast majority, often kept ignorant of simple truths, would gladly be led to “the slaughterhouse of the mind” at the whim and fancy of their so-called leaders. It would be a sad day for mankind should there be another theocracy to be established in this world.

Not only would it corrupt the state, but even further desecrate the sanctity of the religion it professes to uphold. In a roomful of politicians, the least trustworthy would be the “pious and religious politician”, for he uses the veil of “God” to hide the hypocrisy and deceit that he nurtures at heart, in his oblivion of self-righteousness. Politics and religion, as with state and religion, like water and oil, don't mix. At best, it would only create an “emulsion” with the help of self-serving interests acting as the soap(emulsifier).

Each element in this “unholy alliance” would take great pleasure in corrupting the other, in this great “emulsion”. All their doings would be justified and absolved by their religion, and all in God's name! However, a state with an absence of moral guidelines (read God) is doomed to chaos.
As a wise man once said- “.... even if there was no God, man has to create one for himself....” - (or something like that).

The catch here is .... the wise guys who “speak the word of god” - They often overstep the boundaries of their domains, and move into the world to “speak the word of Man”. The religious institutions (read priests/ ulamas/ evangelists) should learn some compassion,humility, and learn to guide through love and wisdom, rather than edict and condemnation. The wise politicians on the other hand, while maintaining the supremacy of the constitution, should permit and encourage the free discussion of theology (without fear of religious retribution), so as to provide a foundation of sorts to the development of progressive, vibrant and ethical ideas.

What corrupts man is the ego and greed that comes with the power to influence minds. With these so- called “men of God”, there is never a lack of “religiosity”. Their “spirituality” on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. It is only fair that these leaders of respective institutions learn the limits of their jurisdiction/ domain and duty. There is hardly any religious or political institution today that truly practices the teachings of the prophets they claim to venerate or honour. The credit should indeed go to the “holy guardians” of each.

Great nations are built on great Ideas.
It is the oasis of freedom, Education, Philosophy and discipline that would determine their viability and progress.

Arrogance brings forth its destruction.

Thoughts for the Day

Thoughts for the Day
We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at
a truth we find bitter.
- Diderot



A “man” doesn't begin to attain wisdom until he recognizes that he is no
longer indispensable.
~ Richard E. Byrd

It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which
those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much
afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving
out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living
death.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

At all times, day by day, we have to continue fighting for freedom of
religion, freedom of speech, and freedom from want — for these are things
that must be gained in peace as well as in war.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

So much for the pearls of wisdom.
It is actually quite tiring – the thinking involved when you ponder on thoughts of
others, whether true to your ideas. At times you tend to wonder how it is that man
actually goes through life all the happier, in total ignorance of “self” and the
complex philosophies of life, based on ideas that shaped the evolution of
mankind.
Well, what can one say, except that ignorance is definitely Bliss. I do find myself
wishing at times that I belonged among the “ignorant” - would have found myself
married, working a regular job at a regular place, leading a regular life .............
hmmmmmmmm, how nice.
When I read the Screwtape Letters ( C. S. Lewis ), what I gather is that it was
knowledge that the “dark forces of evil” targeted to enforce ignorance – to
“educate man into imbecility”, and create confusion in the minds so that one does
not see the blurred line between them. With the information overload that we are
faced with, it is small wonder that getting the right message across to the relevant
party, is quite an arduous task.

It isn't the knowledge that creates this problem, but rather the abuse of little
knowledge of specifics, with which self-declared “little geniuses” are born every
day. Humility appears to be a dying virtue in todays world.
Those who actually promote pride and ignorance, through flattery apparently are
better off in their “marketing” of their wares. Whoever preaches humility in any
form, are doomed to fail. Flattery – “boost to the ego”, is the most effective tool to
sell any product, as long as the lie comes with the style that flatters the senses.

Advent

It has been a pretty uneventful week, this last one. Anyway, as the saying goes, “ No news is good news .......”.

There has however been a pretty odd occurrence to say the least- I got a few jokes (pretty corny ones, though) from someone who shouldn't be in touch ........ yes, it was from our lady herself!

I wonder why ...... So a fleeting thought comes to mind on which I choose to ponder. What is it that brings about conflict?
The closest that I could come to ( with any semblance to an answer) was as follows : -

"It is in the uncompromisingness with which dogma is held and not in the dogma, or want of dogma, that the danger lies." -Samuel Butler, The Way Of All Flesh

“The human race, in its intellectual life, is organized like the bees: the masculine soul is a worker, sexually atrophied, and essentially dedicated to impersonal and universal arts; the feminine is a queen, infinitely fertile, omnipresent in its brooding industry, but passive and abounding in intuitions without method and passions without justice.” - George Santayana, Vol II, Reason in Society

“Matters of religion should never be matters of controversy. We neither argue with a lover about his taste, nor condemn him, if we are just, for knowing so human a passion.”
“Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.” - George Santayana, Vol III, Reason in Religion

To be, or not to be, —that is the question:—
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? —To die, —to sleep,—
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, —'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, —to sleep;—
To sleep! perchance to dream: —ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,—
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns,—puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know naught of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. Shakespeare, (Hamlet, III.i)

“The theologian considers sin mainly as an offence against God; the moral philosopher as contrary to reasonableness.”
“Love is a binding force, by which another is joined to me and cherished by myself.”
“Love works in a circle, for the beloved moves the lover by stamping a likeness, and the lover then goes out to hold the beloved in reality. Who first was the beginning now becomes the end of motion.”
“Love must precede hatred, and nothing is hated save through being contrary to a suitable thing which is loved. And hence it is that every hatred is caused by love.”
“Pain itself can be pleasurable accidentally in so far as it is accompanied by wonder, as in stage-plays; or in so far as it recalls a beloved object to one’s memory, and makes one feel one’s love for the thing, whose absence gives us pain. Consequently, since love is pleasant, both pain and whatever else results from love, in so far as they remind us of our love, are pleasant.”
“Virtues are not emotions.
Emotions are movements of appetite, virtues dispositions of appetite towards movement. Moreover emotions can be good or bad, reasonable or unreasonable; whereas virtues dispose us only to good. Emotions arise in the appetite and are brought into conformity with reason; virtues are effects of reason achieving themselves in reasonable movements of the appetites. Balanced emotions are virtue’s effect, not its substance.”
“Because we cannot know what God is, but only what He is not, we cannot consider how He is but only how He is not.”
“Reasoning is compared to understanding as movement is to rest, or acquisition to possession.... Since movement always proceeds from something immovable, and ends in something at rest, hence it is that human reasoning, in the order of inquiry and discovery, proceeds from certain things absolutely understood—namely, the first principles; and, again, in the order of judgment, returns by analysis to first principles, in the light of which it examines what it has found.
Now it is clear that rest and movement are not to be referred to different powers, but to one and the same.”
“To disparage the dictate of reason is equivalent to condemning the command of God.”
-Aquinas, St. Thomas

How could anyone say for sure that he's got the answer unless he “knew it all”? So I must say here that I do not have a monopoly on the truth or the answer. We used all the harvest of teaching merely as guidelines. It is still my conviction that it is dogma that is poisonous to our minds, for it rapes the mind and saps the soul what little truth that it possesses , to fill it with fanaticism and ignorance that sees no reason.