Abrahamicists (opinion)
This entry is the personal opinion of Kaatryn MacMorgan, it is not to be considered the view of CUEW, CUEW leadership, other CUEW members, small fuzzy animals living at Chez MacMorgan, The American Science Academy, the Modern Language Association, the APA, the CIA, the SCA or, indeed, anyone but Kaatryn MacMorgan. Details regarding just who Kat is can be found at http://www.macmorgan.org. Posts on this blog exist to encourage religious debate and discussion amongst the members of CUEW and others, and to keep the views and actions of elders and leadership as transparent as possible. This particular post made be viewed as volitile to some people, but is posted in sincere respect. It is somewhat truncated, and as such, may seem to jump around.
I have had enough of linguistic games, so I am going to set a few things straight: Muslims, Jews and Christians are the same people and those outside your faiths know it. You are Abrahamicists.
Abrahamicists: Abrahamic religions are those religions revolving around the god of Abraham. "Abrahamic" means of, like and around Abraham, specifically "of Abraham's deity." Abrahamist means a follower of Abraham. Abrahamicist means a follower of the religions of Abraham, specifically, of Abraham's god.
The viciousness of Abrahamic religions, when it exists*, is primarily a factor of monotheism and the individual culture the monotheism is in**. Islamic states where people get beheaded and Sharia is in place are identical, save for some minor language differences, to earlier Christian states. Judaism has pretty much always been a minority religion, and that** keeps there from being a long history of similar Judaic oppression. I suspect that even if you add up all the people killed as a result of Islamic flavored Abrahamic monotheism, they still would not equal the thousands killed in purges, hangings and burnings for not being Christian, so when Christians talk about how Islam is a violent religion, they are the deepest black kettles speaking to pots that came as part of the same kitchenware set.
Christians, you have a right to look at your Abrahamic bretheren and say "we, SOooooo grew out of that!" They are your baby brothers, walking in your footsteps. If you disagree with their actions, it is your job to change their actions, they are your family, not ours. You can use your religion to change it. Secular armies aren't your religion's possessions. (While you're at it, they have something to teach you. You have become very sloppy in your age- you only read your scriptures in translation, you act like "God" is the name of your god. Sloppy, Sloppy. Listen to your elders, too, they will tell you that your sacred works, in translation, lose very much, indeed, and that to know them, you must know the orignal languages.)
It's not that you Abrahamicists can help it, really. Your religion requires that you believe that the only god that exists is your own. The belief that everyone who does not believe as you do must be WRONG, as expressed in Abrahamic monotheism, excuses the killings and excesses of monotheist governments. (It's not RIGHT, but it is inevitable in Abrahamicism.)
Let's examine it:
Abrahamic Monotheism teaches that the only god that exists is the Abrahamic god and all other gods are either mistakes of the people following them or the adversary of the Abrahamic god. Therefore, everyone who refuses to follow the Abrahamic god is either a fool (and therefore worthy of being reeducated, killed, or at least not listened to) or an enemy (and worthy of death.)
Your hatred of others, therefore, is based on the core theology of your faith** and if you just admit it you will be fine...You need to stop seeing what you hate most about your faith in others of what is, for all intents and purposes, the same faith as yours, and advocating killing them on that basis**.
Now, let me make this clear. In my opinion, the only people with the right to the Abrahamic god are the Jews. If you see the god of Abrahamic as a genetic, tribal, specific deity, the monotheism becomes a distinct part of the personhood of the monotheistic tribe- all stories of creation, all stories of salvation, all bargains and the rest are right out if you aren't of the original people. The idea of "one god for our people" is different from "one god for all people" so to say monotheism, alone, is to blame is simplifying. It is UNIVERSAL monotheism that is to blame**- the belief that there is ONE GOD for all people, and that one has the power to enforce that view, as opposed to one god for a distinct subset of people.
Now I, personally, do not believe the Abrahamic deity exists. At least not as he is understood by most Abrahamicists, but I don't think his followers are following an evil god or fools. I assume that something has lead them to belief in him and if he wanted me to so believe, he (not any people acting on his behalf) would make it clear. My gods did so, so if he wanted to, he could.... but I digress.
I am not going to be able to convince the Christian majority in a Christian majority country to refer to both their terrorists (Kopp, McVeigh, Ruldolph) and folks like the 9-11 terrorists as "Abrahamic Radical Terrorists" despite the fact that people can't agree if the folks were "true" practitioners of their religions or not, even though they conceed they were believers in the same deity.
So, lets call them what they are:
ANTI-SECULARISTS.
Anyone who opposes the existance of governments that are not religious in nature is an antisecularist. People like Pat Robertson, whose hatred for America shows in spectacularly new ways regularly, are Anti-secularists. They believe that governments not based on their religion should be dismantled (often by whatever means necessary) Antisecularism, in a secular country, is the opposite of PATRIOTISM.
Kopp, McVeigh, Ruldolph, the 9-11 Hijackers, the guys that blew up the Cole, and a number of assorted small time terrorists are ANTI-SECULAR TERRORISTS. They want the United States to cease to exist unless their religious views are made the law.
Secularists believe governments should exist to provide the people with the minimum of what they need to safely exist. In otherwords- governments should assist in the provision of infrastructure and secular education (which is infrastructure of a different sort,) protect the country from external and internal terrorism, see that all people who do not give up rights voluntarily have those rights protected (for example, when you steal, you willingly give up your right to not be imprisoned,) provide for equal treatment under the law (in otherwords, if a man and woman want to marry, or anyone capable of giving consent and anyone (plural or singular) else similarly capable want to marry, they may, and, before the pseudoliberals agree with me, a guy who commits a torture murder on a random gay guy gets the same sentence as a guy who commits a torture murder on his wife or boss,) protect those who are incapable of consenting to things (the severly disabled, children) and provide a SECULAR process for the resolution of disputes. Perhaps you have heard this before when it went like this:
"...to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."
Antisecularists will fight against domestic tranquiity unless and until the above is changed to include the enforcement of the following of their god of choice and their religious beliefs of choice, by threat, bribe, intimidations, personal advancement.
Those people are the scary, scary people, the real enemies of the state and the real antipatriots, and we should call them what they are.
Do I think ALL Abrahamicists are Anti-Seculaists? NO WAY!
Do I think all terrorists are Abrahamicists? No way! In all of history, there have been plenty of non-Abrahamic terrorists.
Do I think that all Anti-secularists are terrorists? No, but I think all Anti-Secularists preach a special gospel that makes terrorism okay in their view. That's why when terrorism happens to secular governments they say it's because the government was at fault. If they said it was the beliefs of the terrorist, they'd be indicting their own views, too.
Do I think all Anti-Secularists are anti-American? You betcha! The good thing about old USA, however, is that anti-Americanism is allowed, terrorism is not!
What I do think is that calling Anti-secularism what it is everytime we hear it stops the stupid comfort zone we allow some of them to live in- If we say that there is no difference between an Anti-American Islamic Terrorist and an Anti-American Christian Terrorist (and there is not. Terrorist scum is terrorist scum. PERIOD.) we make it even clearer that one's individual justification for hating secular governments is not the issue, the hatred, and the actions it causes, is.
*which is not always
**amongst other things
Comments
I want to express my support, this is a very important issue.
I especially like the phrase "Secular armies aren't your religion's possessions.". This is a powerful argument indeed.
The effects of rampant monotheism (as I name it) on our societies are many, intolerance and oppression are just the obvious ones.
Basic irresponsibility or indifference is another. Since the monotheistic god rules supreme, he's ultimately responsible for everything, and the proselytes are then not. This is what I've come to call "perpetuated childhood".
Keep up the good work :)
Posted by: Irenessøn
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January 14, 2007 02:47 AM