FEATURE ARTICLE

Sunday, February 2, 2025
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UK
THE PARADOX OF BELIEF AND DEVINE WISDOM

ur selfish human hearts, when constrained by beliefs often creates situations where what one person approves, is exactly what the other opposes and or, what one person hates, is what the other likes. We often watch this played out when people discus issues like, religion, politics, abortion, trans and LGBT RIGHTS and the nature of our interpersonal relationships.

Under these circumstances, conflict is inevitable.

However, if only people can go back to the foundation of their beliefs and understand the errors and false assumptions of their sages ,made clear by increase in knowledge and understanding, their differences would become clear and they may make the adjustments necessary for peaceful coexistence.

The question is, which Muslim, Jew, Christian Hindu, Buddhist etc., would accept that their heroes were imperfect men who made some wrong assumptions about life, and the transcendent?

You can begin to understand why peaceful coexistence, even though easy to achieve, is often impossible and why religion and ethnicity are such divisive constructs.

It may well be that peace is elusive because men come to peace shackled by beliefs the origins of which are riddled with false assumptions, ignorance and prejudice.

Today, many religious people prescribe death or long prison term for LGBT and adultery, while approving of polygamy child marriage and genital mutilation of females.

Therefore, Moral feelings cannot be counted upon to lead to morally appropriate conducts at all times.

This is why righteous indignation in religious people may lead to tragic conducts that have great consequences for others.

In the Bible we have an example in the woman caught in adultery. The moral feeling of the crowd was for her to be stoned because their religion prescribed death for adultery. They had no time to consider the justice of their decision and circumstances that gave rise to the action they wish to punish.

It would also seem that Religion may lack the ability to create good human beings because its doctrine inoculates believers with prejudice virus that come in the way of rational and empathic decisions.

Therefore, the religious often ends up finding good reason for the evil its orthodoxy may compels. This may explain why some religions often spends more time stoning and beheading sinners, instead of extending the compassion, forgiveness and love on which true transformation depends.

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