Tragedy in Paris

The idea or concept of a monotheistic God is not new, and has culturally developed into the idea that the Supreme Being is patriarchal. Prior to receiving the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai, in the Old Testament, we find the notion of a despotic, jealous God that considered man, whom he created, as his property. In this phase of religion, God not only drove man out of paradise, he subsequently decided to destroy the human race by flood, with the exception of his favorite son Noah. Then a new phase began when God made a covenant with Noah and promised never to destroy the human race again. This became a covenant by which he is bound. He was now tied to his own principle, of justice.  God was no longer a despotic tribal chief, but now became a loving father and perpetuated principles of justice, truth and love. In other words, God is truth, and God is justice. Much later, God gave his commandments, giving a formula for justice, truth and love to all. Thou shall not kill is just one illustration.

We also know that man because of massive insecurity, the power of nature and his separateness or aloneness was psychologically driven to achieve union or affiliation with others. This union because of aloneness, at times, drove the individual self to disappear, assimilate and become part of the group or the herd. This need for belonging results psychologically in not having many thoughts or feelings that are different, and to rigidly conform to the various custom, dress and ideas or the patterns of that particular group.

Currently, we have given massive attention to a significant minority with Middle Eastern roots. These groups of men and women have become affiliated with the multitude of different terrorist organizations, or simply gangs. We hear and witness their death and self-destructive bonding in the civilized world. It’s not uncommon for them to commit suicide while murdering others. It’s hard to fully comprehend and believe that their God has a mission to destroy anyone, not believing in him, nor would justify the suicide of his own so called followers. This nonsense sounds like prejudicial hate to me.

Charles Manson and his followers killed others, but they did not strap suicide, explosive to themselves. Jim Jones and his followers committed suicide, and did not go around chopping off the heads of others. So, do we have a God that combines the pathological behaviors of a Manson and Jones? I think not. I would like to believe that one whom employs rational thinking as opposed to magical thinking would not support that type of behavior and follow a leader like those two sociopaths. By the same token, anyone that buys into the notion that both homicide and suicide are virtues and following a good book are simply exhibiting primitive and infantile thinking. And the idea that there are virgins in the sky to follow is also idiotic and illustrates a non-logic illusion. However, if there is promise of money, glory caliphate rule to follow, then the path to destructive and hateful behavior is accompanied by denial, rationalization of thinking within their life space of non-human, belittlement of self-existence.

When you see these young testosterone driven men on TV, they seem aggressive in showing and shooting their weapons and all conformingly dressed like pirate revolutionaries. Notice, that the women are not dressed as flashy nor do they exhibit or show off with guns, etc. One aspect that makes these thugs so dangerous is that our world globe has shrunk. They talk about death and destruction in the Middle East, Europe and in the United States. Unfortunately, anyone that wants to commit suicide and kills others in the process can, at times, do just that and make it happen. This story is far from over. Ideally, and in the development of a mature civilization or culture, God is supposed to be associated with justice and love between man and man. Obviously, many in these societies think otherwise and exist with the old motto “live to kill and be killed?” Unfortunately, this self-destructive madness is not going to vanish and go away overnight.