by Alwin Templar

Created on: July 07, 2009   Last Updated: October 04, 2010

However rational we may think we are, there is not a person alive who doesn't wield an article of faith now and again when the going gets tough or opponents need swatting. Even atheists can sound at times like they're motivated more by an emotional zealotry rather than an absolute certainty that their convictions are based on reason alone. After all, none of us knows for certain what propels this mystery called existence.

So because we all display some degree of faith, it stands to reason that faith is integral to our whole make-up, and if that's the case then faith has been our support from day one and has been instrumental in our evolution from hunter-gatherers with spears to urban techno-geeks with hang-ups. Our compulsion to believe has allowed us to achieve so much throughout the centuries, individually and collectively, and has been the prime motivation for the greatest of people, conventionally religious or not. However, despite its benefits, faith can also make brutes of us all.

When most of us in the West talk of religion, we are usually referring to Christianity or Islam. Neither of these is a violent religion. Both have at their heart a creed of selflessness and common purpose where the ultimate truth pursued is one of unity, not division. Yet both religions from the outset have inspired people to commit violence in their names. History is one big storybook full of bloody deeds committed by those who claimed to have God on their side. The question then is why peaceful religions inspire some of their followers to commit violent acts.

The problem arises when religion is used, like it has always been, to further ethnic or nationalist aims or to reinforce social prejudices. Because so many religious people down the ages have seen their religion not just as a path to God but also as an expression of who they are and what they feel, it's little wonder that the partisan conflicts of men and the perceived motivations of an obliging God have long since become interchangeable. God always seems to be on our side whatever side we may be on.

It would be simplistic to say that man created God in his own image. It might be more to the point to say that mankind has long assumed that God's concerns are the concerns of mankind, and that if our particular enemy needs a kick in the ass then it's because our particular God wishes it so. We humans have always had a high opinion of our significance.

So how much easier it

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>