Thursday, August 23, 2007

On "God's Warriors"

Christiane Amanpour presented a brilliant program on Muslims, Jews and Christians, however, the alleged "Secular" was only included as a minor part of the subject matter, and were mostly presented from religious perspectives. The behavior that was presented as "Secular" by people interviewed in the series was not secular at all.

The Secular agenda is merely a platform of individual freedom of choice. The religious only rail against the abnormal behavior occurring on the other side of the platform, then blame the platform.

Of course, defining what is abnormal is entirely subjective to one's own culture or subculture. The Secular understand this and can learn to participate in a respectful manner in multiple cultures, within reason. This opens passages for people to explore different belief systems and make their own choices.

The extremists of the three religions are struggling for dominance over each other and the rest of the world, while the moderates tolerate the extremists and the semi-practitioners and non-practitioners.

The Secular (perhaps not all) see moderates as a cauldron of homogenization between the extremists and non-practicing members of each sect. Sort of like an engine that allows a religion to maintain its existence. If the moderates suddenly migrated toward the semi-practitioners, the extremists would lose their sense of authority, and rituals might fade out of existence.

When a religion must use fear, force or deception to keep a hold on its flock, it's a false religion. The winner is the religion with the most people who were allowed to learn about other cultures, and chose of their own free will, their paths.

To religious people, there is a Fifth Horseman of their apocalypse, and its name is Freedom.

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