|
|
|
|
Lies vs. Hate
The bitter experience of the Islamic revolution in Iran has made many wary of Islam in particular and of all religions in general. Some freethinkers opine that all religions must be eradicated completely to avoid repeating the same errors that were committed under Islam. In the Internet based discussion board of Jebhe Melli (The Democratic
National Front of Iran) in a debate between a secularist and a respected member
of a religious minority the secularist argued that lies are as dangerous and evil as
hate and he suggested that we should confront and expose the beliefs that
are not based on the truth. The writer reasoned: "Dear friend, … I hope that
after all we can agree upon a few points here; the centrality and importance of
truthfulness, that lies and deceptions, if not more dangerous and evil, are at
least as evil as hatred and should be strongly exposed, confronted, and
condemned...." I decided to jump in and add my two cents with the following
comments: At the first sight it seems that the above statement is
true, i.e. "lies are at least as evil and dangerous as hatred and consequently
should be strongly exposed, confronted and condemned". But this blanket condemnation of lies presents a technical
difficulty. The problem is that it assumes that the truth is something that
everyone can understand and anyone deviating from it is lying. However this is
not the case. People have different perceptions of the Truth. What to one may
look as Truth, it may not to others. Our understanding of the Truth depends on our
perceptions, and our perceptions are based on our limitations, social and
cultural upbringings, our intellectual capacity and other conditionings. Truth is not a defined and a finite concept that anyone can
understand. We all see part of the Truth and none of us can claim exclusivity to
it. Truth is infinite and is multi-faceted. Take the example of the Earth. You
can stand in any place on the surface of the Earth and get a glimpse of it. But
you cannot see all of it. Two observers standing in deferent vantage points see
different things. When they describe what they see, neither one of them is
lying. They tell you the truth of what they see and what they see is different.
I recall an old story that is humorous as well as
educational that I believe explains the nature of the truth and can shed some
light on this concept. Two Jews argued about a religious matter. One of them
went to the rabbi and explained his views. The rabbi listened attentively and
nodded his head saying: “Yes, you are right my son”. He went home happily.
Then the second one paid him a visit and explained to him his understanding. The
rabbi listened to him too and said: “You are right my son”. Later on when
his wife catches him alone, she objected: “how can it be that both these men
are right when they believe in different things?”, The rabbi chafed his chin
and responded: “yes my dear YOU are right”. The good rabbi was not pulling anyone’s legs. He
was telling the truth and he was right. What he knew, and what we must learn
from him, is that each person sees the truth according to his understanding and
is right from his point of view. And since all points of views are relative, no
one is right or wrong in absolute terms. There was a time that I was searching after the truth.
There was a time that I thought that truth is accessible and one can get at it
if one looks for it, but
not anymore. Truth is not something you can grasp in its entirety. All what you
can attain is a partial truth. If truth can be compared to the world, the best way to see the truth
is to be a traveler. Go from one place to another, listen to everyone and from
each person learn something. The more you travel, the more people you meet, the
more things you see, your
understanding of The truth expands. You never see all the truth but you see more
of it. Therefore knowing that truth is unattainable and that it is relative, I
give less weight to the truth and more to the good. The Differences of opinions that to some may seem lies do not hurt us. The belief is Santa Clause is a lie. Is it “more dangerous and evil than hate”? To believe that cows are sacred is a lie. Does it hurt anyone? The belief in Zartosht and Baha’u’llah as messengers of God, according to the understanding of those who don’t believe that God sends messengers is also not true. But is there anything harmful in these beliefs? The danger of imposing one's truth on others apart from its
logical absurdity is also ethically wrong. It is reminiscent of the
inquisitions, where the majority would assault the minority, whether physically
or intellectually, to straighten their thoughts and impose their version of the
truth. I find the statements like "Lies if not more dangerous and evil, are at
least as evil as hatred and should be strongly exposed, confronted, and
condemned...." extremely disturbing. How are we going to achieve
this? Are we going to inaugurate a new era of intellectual witch hunt? Should we
deny others to have the freedom to believe in whatever they choose to believe
with respect without being constantly harassed by intellectual crusaders? Not everyone can live happily without a personal god.
There are many good and intelligent people who still need to believe in a heavenly father. That
need is real even when the father is not. You may call it a crutch but to take
away that crutch is cruelty. I do not believe in a personal god and therefore
according to my understanding, which is by no means infallible, God is a lie.
Should I fight with everyone who believes in God? What if they believe that
their god has told them to speak good, to think good and to do good like
Zoroastrians do? What if they believe that their god wants them to abolish the
prejudices, love all humankind; establish equality between men and women and
foster unity between all the races, nationalities, and religions like Baha’is do? Is there anything inherently wrong, evil and dangerous in these
beliefs? Isn’t it better to be misguided and do good than be "guided" and do
evil? From my perspective religions are wrong, but who said my
perspective is the only right perspective?
Tolerance means also tolerating people’s beliefs. I don’t say that
beliefs and ideologies are sacred and you should not criticize any belief least
its followers are offended. On the contrary I believe beliefs are there to be
probed, scrutinized, criticized and if found hollow, discarded. PEOPLE are
sacred; beliefs are not! However, this does not license me to lash out at
everyone and try to disprove the beliefs of all those whose thinking differs
from mine. Who said my beliefs are right? Of course I think that
they are or I would not have them, but doesn’t everyone else think
the same way? What good does it make if you and I constantly fight over who is
right and who is not? The truth is that neither one of us has the truth. And
that is the truth. The history of humankind is written with the blood of
people who fought for the Truth. Yet when we look back, we see no trace for the
Truth they fought for and died for. “Forgotten
lie the martyrs in their dusty catacombs Truth is
relative. No truth is completely true. The ancient Chinese when drawing the
symbol of yin and yang, placed a dot of white in the core of the black and a dot
of black in the heart of the white to say: nothing is absolute;
everything is relative. No black is completely black and no white is completely
white. Truth is a lighter gray and lies are darker ones. There is no definite
line dividing them. All lies are partially true and all truths are partially
false. Some lies are harmless
and some are amusing. But hate is a different story. Hate of
the people for their color of skin or belief is odious. It is evil and
dangerous. Hate is not lack of love but a powerful force of malevolence. Lies do
not harm us, hates do. Lies do not kill us, hates do. We cannot compare hate
with lie. As I said above, some perceived lies are not lies at all but different
viewpoints. The person who in your view is telling a lie may even be convinced
that s/he is telling the truth. But there is no excuse for hate.
Hate invokes violence. It is an intense feeling of aversion. To fight
the lies you have to know the truth. But who knows the truth and who is the one
to decide? Your truth and mine may be completely different. Who should be the
teacher and who the student? Which truth is the right truth? Truth
may be one but the perceived truth are many. It may be as numerous as the
number of people living in this planet. Hate is also one. It may show its ugly
face differently and may have different names. Hate is hate and in all its forms
and manifestations it is destructive and evil. It might
be an oxymoron to say that there is more harm in trying to be the crusader of
the truth than let lies live in peace. Lies that are harmless will die on their
own without our help. This is the age of information and old age fallacies are
crumbling one after the other. Knowledge is stronger than ignorance and truth is
more powerful than lies. Fighting for the truth will only feed fanaticism and
increase rivalry. It is
futile to pick fights with every person whose thinking differs from us. Actually
it is more than futile. It is counterproductive and dangerous. Practically every
other person on this planet thinks differently from you or me. Are we going to fight with all of them and correct everybody’s thinking? We have to
understand that none of us is the bearer of the standard of the Truth and it is okay
if other’s beliefs do not match ours. Our job is not to find faults with the
beliefs of everyone we come across. Our job is to be the instrument of unity and
love among the people of the world. Humanity is diverse and unity of
humanity cannot be achieved without diversity. Diversity of races, diversity of
thoughts and diversity of beliefs is what enriches the humanity. However, doctrines and beliefs that promote hate are a different story. We should oppose them and we should eliminate them, not because they are false but because thy are dangerous. Nazism and Islam are doctrines that promote hate. It is a mistake not to confront them. We should not fight against Islam because it is a false doctrine. We should fight against it because it is threatening the peace and security of the world. The teachings of Islam are teachings of hate. We cannot stand by and let this hate consume everything in its path, ruin lives and kill people. Of course the Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects the right to believe even if that belief advocates hate. But this does not mean we should sit silent and not confront such beliefs. It is a moral obligation of every human being who cares about human liberties to speak out and condemn doctrines that advocate hate. Remaining silent in the face of tyranny is condoning it. I do not
acknowledge anybody as a messenger of God. In fact I do not believe in a
personal god that thinks, cares and sends messengers. This is an absurdity. But
I will stand along with those who want to worship a god and have a religion. I
don’t care about the truthfulness of the beliefs of the people, but rather about their
actions and what they teach. In
a free world people must be free to believe in any religion they choose, worship
any god they like and pray at any altar they prefer. Humanity has lived with
lies happily since its early beginning. It was the hate that has soured his
living not those sweet lies. If we want to fight lies it is better to start
fighting the lies of our own beliefs than decry the lies that someone else hold
so dear and cherish so much. This
aggressive attitude that I have the truth and you better accept my truth or else
is evil. it is something that is introduced by the Semitic religions and Muhammad banked on
it to impose his religion on others. Unfortunately after thousands of years of
religious indoctrination, we are conditioned to think in the absolute truth and
believe there is ONE right way that is the only way and those who do not agree
with it are liars and must be corrected, fought against or eliminated. Even the
secular doctrines that we invent, like communism, fascism, and nazism are imbued
with this religious spirit of self righteousness. There is no such thing at all. No way is the only right way. Acceptance of other people and tolerance of their beliefs is the right way. The truth is not in what we believe but in how we live. It is how we interact with people of other creeds that makes us right or wrong. We should not fight the religions that believe in a god or gods but those religions that advocate hate, that order killing those who disagree with them, and discourage unity of human kind. A quick review of the teaching of Quran and the life of its author shows clearly that Islam is such religion and therefore it is an obstacle to the peace and brotherhood of humankind.
March
2001
|
