Joshua 6, Verse 21

A couple of years ago, I received an email from a friend questioning my views on religion based on a conversation we had had about the events of 911. This was my reply:

Yes, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were very barbaric; such a waste. It is sad what fanatical thinking can do to people when they blindly follow others and refuse to validate their own beliefs against the vast evidence of history, including their own experiences.

I first discovered that Joshua verse, at about age 31, while reading a book I bought at the Woolworth store in Independence one day in 1978 when Judy and I went there for lunch while we were working at ARCO. The paperback book was a history of the bible based on archaeological discoveries in the holy land during the 19th and 20th centuries. Reading Joshua chapter 6, verse 21 (which immediately follows the story about the walls of Jericho tumbling down and is the basis for the sweet little children's song that we sang in Sunday school) was a critical turning point in my thinking about religion. I could not accept it being ok to have an entire community, including the elderly and little children, approved for slaughter so that another group of people could take over their homeland. That made no sense to me and was contrary to my religious views up to that point in my life. More recently, I googled the book of Joshua and found many other similar instances of God authorizing his "chosen" to kill entire communities so they could take another's land.

Here is a note I wrote to myself a few years ago about my reaction to Joshua 6:21...

"A major turning point in my attitude toward Christianity was my reading of Joshua 6:21. This verse is the culmination of a running dialog among God, Moses, and Joshua with the ultimate goal being the acquisition of the "Promised Land" by the Israelites. This reading made clear to me that the God of the Jewish heritage was and is simply a justifying mechanism for the most appalling crimes that one group of people can commit against another. It is interesting to observe that the present day Jewish community fails include this scripture within the context of Holocaust related discussions. I don't make this association to justify the Holocaust. The crimes committed by the German leaders against the Jewish people during WW II were punished to the fullest extent possible at the time. Those acts stand on their own historically and can never be justified."

And that being as it may, I believe not what I am told by some authority, dogma, or creed to believe, but I believe what I am compelled by my own conscience, life experiences, and understanding to believe. I don't pretend to know the answers of where we came from, where we are going, or what it is all about. Most of what I believe about religion is actually based on what I don't believe. That is the crucial test for me. I have bought a few used cars and encyclopedias in my time and have known a lot of different people. I have learned to often recognize deceit, deception, and insincerity when I hear it or see it. It is my sincere belief that the institutions of religion are based on nothing more than folklore and myth; creative storytellings by those who seek to entertain, dominate, or control others for their own prestige and gain. They can’t help it, it’s just the way they are.

But that is not an indictment of the nice groups of people who gather together in churches and enjoy each other's trust and support. The social and supportive aspects of church groups are great. It is the thin hard outer shell of lies, deceit, domination, and control that is the true evil of religion. If not for the Roman Catholic Church and subsequent others that followed, I imagine that air travel and other modern technologies would have emerged hundreds of years before they actually did. I believe their delay was due to the systematic prohibition and restriction of scientific learning, lethally enforced by the Church for centuries. Unfortunately science is discouraged and discredited to this day by religious leaders around the world.

Other than that, I think all people are about the same. Life and human existence are very complex and not a series of simple choices between right and wrong. Life is messy.

I am comfortable with my own views and respect the rights of others to believe as they feel appropriate.

I just try to get by day to day, generally meeting the expectations of family, employer, and society.