June 30, 2002

Religion As a Source for War
G the G

You are quite wrong about religion not causing wars. Humanity is dark-hearted and we will drop the gloves at a moments notice, but, nothing irks us more than some one saying that our pile of rocks is not a real god and their pile of rocks is.

The Muslims and Jews, or Muslims and Christians, or Christians and Jews, etc. do not square off if their gods do not say, "you shall have no other gods before me..." The god of each religion calls the believers of the other gods infidels in some way. Allah says it explicitly. Deuteronomy 27 shows YHWY telling the Israelites to destroy the "different" inhabitants of the land completely. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life no one comes to the father except by me."

This says nothing of the "minor" religions making war amongst themselves. Or, the struggle between the Protestants and Cathelics. That is a war built purely on religion. Ask a Dubliner if that is not a war.

To bring it all back to Tolkien, the struggle between good and evil, light and dark, etc. is a struggle concerning who is to wield supreme power. Does evil win all? Or, does good carry the day?

The truth and I mean Truth (not that pansy relativist rubbish)is that the author of the story is the one in whom their is victory. Tolkien emulated his God in creating a world. He never meant it a an alegory for Christ, but his dedication to Christ caused him to worship Jesus (the Author and perfector of our faith) by his own minor creation.