Iraqi Letters

Interesting point, that last one, about religion. The idea that religion is the source of absolute standards of justice and "what is right" is a laugh. In each religion you mentioned, the so called "great" monotheistic faiths, there can be no greater example of absolute disparity, never mind the fact that these great religions have the same source. If Abraham had envisioned the current state of affairs, and the long history of blood and gore between the branches of his family, do you think he would ever have offered Ishmael/Isaac (depending on whose version you ascribe to)?

Obviously, the current state of affairs is the will of Allah/YahWeh/God - to think otherwise is to doubt the power of the One, and that would be sacrilege!

These religions are used by the men at the top to get the believers at the bottom to raid the coffers/coffins of the other men-at-the-top.

Stop. Muslims, Christians, Jews, stop being the pawns of the "believers" at the top. If we choose to lead our lives - all of us - as the chattel of others, then at least let us not pretend that God is the source of this nonsense!
 
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There is no guidance from "Heaven" here on Earth. All of it comes from human beings, no matter how holy they imagine themselves or their followers imagine them to be. To leave morality up to them is to write a blank check. Morality should be based on life on earth. If it was, it would be clear that cutting heads off is evil, and that killing people who make a practice of cutting people's heads off is morally justified. Whatever is bad for life, extinguishes its natural potential (of men OR women), cuts off its possibilities, stifles individual thought and the potential of each person's mind to think, strangles the chances for life on earth to be better. Life on earth, not other people's interpretation of "Heaven's Law," should be the basis for determining what is moral. And here on earth each of us has a brain, each of us is an individual, each of is capable of making choices, and hence, there is such a thing called "morality." If we cannot choose there is no morality. There is no morality at the edge of a sword. As soon as you compel people to act in a certain way, they have ceased to be moral agents and become cattle. This applies to government as well as to criminals who would attack the individual and take away his choices. No one can receive moral credit or blame for what they do under duress. If you want to strip an entire population of the chance to be moral, impose religious or totalarian control over them. Then they will no longer be responsible for their actions and will no longer be able to be called "moral" or "immoral." They will simply be robots doing what they are told -- no goodness inside them will have anything to do with it. The whole field of ethics will cease to apply as soon as you remove choice from individuals. That is why the imposition of religious "law" on people by their government always completely wipes out the possibility for a truly "moral" culture. If no one is CHOOSING to be moral but are simply forced to behave in a certain way, how can anyone claim to be a moral person? Morality in such society's must exist only in the dark, where the State or the religious leaders cannot see it, in moments where people choose or can still get away with choosing to act in a certain way that brings goodness somehow to the world. Otherwise, morality as such cannot exist.
 
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