Chris Floyd: Beyond Belief

[Dover]

Beyond Belief

By Chris Floyd
Published: July 28, 2006

The history of almost every religion is a tragedy of betrayal: the betrayal of the radical, egalitarian vision of its founders by generations of powerful elites, who twist and pervert the original principles in order to augment their own status, wealth and dominion. It has always been thus, but is nowhere more marked than among the "People of the Book" -- Christians, Muslims and Jews -- whose elites have for centuries led their followers away from the sparks of light that shone in the beginning, dragging them deeper into darkness and error, until today the world finds itself mired in a new Jahiliyyah, or time of ignorance.

We are not suggesting a precise equivalence here, of course. The blood-curdling depredations of those who claim to be Christians have, in sheer numbers over the course of history, far outweighed the atrocities committed by those who claim to be Muslims. And the number of crimes committed in the names of both of these sects dwarf by several magnitudes the outrages perpetrated by those who claim to follow the paths of Rabbinic Judaism -- although the latter are certainly making a game bid to catch up.


The degeneration of these faiths into aggressive obscurantism should of course be a matter solely for their adherents; why should anyone else be concerned with the feverish hair-splitting, manic control-freakery and sexual obsessions of rabid fundamentalists? Unfortunately, these now-degraded sects dominate the lives of billions of people. Professed believers -- or, even worse, sincere believers -- from the three "Abrahamic faiths" control the governments of many nations, with bristling nuclear arsenals under Christian, Jewish and Muslim command. The fundamentalists' stunted, ignorant and at times demented interpretations of ancient texts, dubious traditions and their own blood-soaked histories cannot be ignored. They are the driving force behind every conflict today that threatens to wrap the earth in flames of literal hellfire.

But what these modern-day "believers" believe -- and do -- has almost no connection to the religions they profess. Karen Armstrong provides clear evidence of this in "The Great Transformation," her sweeping new scholarly study of the "Axial Age," the tremendous, centuries-long, worldwide eruption of human consciousness (roughly 900-200 BCE) that gave rise to the major traditions still existing today: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Greek rationalist thought and the monotheism of Israel, from which later sprang the three sibling faiths whose family quarrels have so poisoned the last two millennia.

As Armstrong notes, the "Axial sages" -- prophets, mystics, philosophers, poets -- achieved a remarkable consensus across centuries and cultures in the essence of their teachings. "All the sages preached a spirituality of empathy and compassion; they insisted that people abandon their egotism and greed, their violence and unkindness," and that this radical compassion "must somehow extend to the entire world." Indeed, "as far as the Axial sages were concerned, respect for the sacred rights of all beings -- not orthodox belief -- was religion."..cont'd

http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/07/28/120.html