Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all came into being in the Middle East, and there was a time adherents lived there in relative peace. It is beyond tragic that the region has become the flash point of intense economic and religious conflict. Righteousness and favor in God’s eye (in all three religions) ideally would seem to lead to charity and peace, but concepts of superiority and the allure of dominance have muscled their way into the minds of religious and political leaders. At the root of the problem is that all three religions trace their origin to the God of Abraham, by all accounts a stern, watchful, autocratic, at times vengeful entity seemingly without joy and laughter. From this beginning, the Middle East today is inevitably destined to erupt in a violent confrontation of differing interpretations of what gains the favor of a God who decreed, “thou shall have no other god above me”. Monotheism here has thus evolved into a contentious, deadly state of affairs, and while we may well indeed have a God problem (the claim of being made in his image speaks not particularly well of that God), what we actually have is a humanity problem, from which we have created a God from our own tendencies, one prone to violence, misogyny, male supremacy, a thirst for power, and penchant for war. At this core is the belief that power comes from an ability to dominate and destroy rather than one based on creativity and nurture. By definition, politics deals with the distribution of power within a society, economics on the distribution of wealth, and religion on leading a life that gains the favor of a supreme power. In today’s world, the combination of these three has become a Gordian’s Knot that intrinsically defies solution. The beliefs that Jews are God’s Chosen People, that martyrdom for Islam will be rewarded in the afterlife by Allah, and that possessing economic and military power, wealth and dominion, is God’s design for mankind are all addled misconceptions. Throughout history, civilizations and gods have come and gone. Until we truthfully acknowledge and resolve our darkest human tendencies, the future of all life on Earth remains in great peril.

RP