Christmas is coming if the store decor is on schedule, and along with it comes Hannuka, Diwali and sacrificing young persons under the old oak tree. I know I shouldn't lump puritan and pagan in the same seasonal cliche, but I'm weak, and the religious celebrations really do tap into some aspects of both our better and beastly natures.
I actually think that religion is an interesting phenomenon. I also think it consists simply of collections of fairy tales, but they do guide the lives to some degree of a lot of my fellow citizens on spaceship earth. They also share some perspectives with which even a happy old atheist can agree, along with others that no one would want in their personal faith repository.
One of the things that interests me is the fact that none of the originators of them to my knowledge ever specified a code saying "We're right and everyone who doesn't agree has to be killed off", although in practice, many of their adherents did exactly that.
I mean Christ didn't tell his disciples "Look guys, I want you to find every Jewish countryman and woman of mine and take all their stuff and beat the bejeezus out of them and tell everyone to keep doing it forever". At some point though, that was the instruction that got passed down from the folks in charge of the Christian religion. And if there weren't any Jews handy, they could burn anyone who didn't believe their particular brand of Christianity. The pope said so.
On the other hand, and even allowing Jews their version of history (for which there is no archeological evidence), there isn't some edict in Hebrew that has ever come to my attention that instructs Israelis to annihilate every non-Jew in the part of the planet they believe was designated as their land by some mythical being who supposedly had long conversations with their founding ancestor.
And, in the same vein (bloodletting being an apt metaphor), Mohammed didn't tell his followers how to determine the next leader of his religion, whether by heredity or council appointment and that little oversight has caused lots of bloodletting between Shia (family lineage) and Sunni (elect him by council). And although the Master Moslem did tell his followers to get out and proselytize, he didn't say they had to kill anyone who didn't comply. That notion got added later, like the Inquisition. And if you're a Zionist scriptwriter, you'll push everyone and every media voice on the planet to broadcast it on pain of bad stuff happening if they don't.
Even the Old Testament Jews didn't really go along with the authors of Leviticus and condemn so many of their kin and conquered to death for some minor failing. There must have been a lot of mere negligence in observing ritual, even if that ritual was supposed to apply only to the Levi, the bigwigs of their covenant. Forward a thousand years.
A detailed analysis of motives and consequences of the crusades or the 1941 partition of the Asian subcontinent into Hindu India and Moslem Pakistan is something that far better minds than mine have grappled with. Financial gain would always be a good contender for any cause and if it were buried under the guise of religious fervour (or fever), well that's just the way of the wealthy with the workers. A lot of barbarism happened in both instances, and both seemed like "crusades" for the dominance of one religion over another, one secular power over another.
I much prefer to see the best in the various practices, and so here's some of the social values I think they offered, in contrast to the bloodletting that many of them also sanctioned. And it's only what I think I know, because I'm not a student of religions. Some of you have more credibility in that area than do I.
It's also long and you may have a better use for your time, like shopping. And if you're doing that, keep some small bills and coins for the Salvation Army kettles outside the stores. They've been lampooned from Shaw to nowtime and they still keep doing the job.
Abrahamic
The Abrahamic religions all recognize great granddaddy Abraham as the source of their particular contract with the Almighty whoever/however they conceived Her to be. On their best behaviour, they would all have made very nice neighbours. Here's what they contributed to the world.
Jewish
Creation from nothing concept:
This was an interesting notion and they got dibs on it. Others had a deity who got busy melting ice or knocking up some other celestial being to make the stuff of the physical universe. Not Yaweh. "In the beginning was the word" they said, and that's where everything else came from. So what, you ask? Edward Said (a Moslem don't you know) gave them credit for a very profound concept.
Ten Commandments:
Jews had a code of behaviour that other religions borrowed from even when they were busy persecuting the Jews. That rule of law as codified in 10 commandments may not have been the earliest set of laws (the Babylonian Hammurabi might get credit for that) but it definitely stuck - simple, clear directives to live by. Then the rabbis had a go at them and it was like turning a cake recipe over to a group of lawyers. But, hey, the substance was never contested, and the Christians made like they'd thought them up or been there when they were handed down.
Respect for elders and education:
Schooling and dialectics (learning through debate) were features of Greek education, but those aspects of passing on cultural values were also prominent in Jewish yeshiva institutions, and every generation of rabbis benefitted from and contributed to a system of education. And old folks were considered repositories of those cultural values so don't mess with them. The modern equivalent in New York I'm told is the Jewish momma.
Christian:
Humble origins:
If you want to ask what makes a hero, from King Arthur to Superman, this is the answer. Start small. If there's a sword needs extracting from a rock at some point, OK do it, but remember where you came from, Artie. Christ had straw in his diapers and barn smells in the air and that picture - sanitized a bit - became the archetype for all hero figures in our western tradition. Politicians always emphasize their humble origins - single mom, farm chores, never having held a real job before getting elected to Canadian parliament. You know the script.
Way of peace and compassion:
"Blessed are the peacemakers" said JC (among other things) and for a lot of the faithful, that became their shtick. Even when others forgot and went off to make mayhem, the monasteries and convents kept the faith and kept a lot of the working poor - most everyone else - alive and in many cases, educated.
Social obligation:
You can "render unto Caesar" all you like, but if your neighbour needs a hand up, give it. Societies and sects aside, most Christian cliques at least looked after their own, and the Quakers looked after everyone.
Multiculturalism:
Ya gotta "care for the stranger at your gate" and like the paraphrase on that church display board said, "In that you have done it unto the children of Gaza, you have done it unto Him". If you think only white-skinned folk are ascending into heaven come the Rapture (men first, ladies), you have a really weird knowledge of history and geography. Hell, you're just weird; go play with your phone.
Moslem:
Tolerance:
There was an inclusive (tolerant) attitude toward other Abrahamaic religions. Those Jews and Christians in European cities that came under medieval Moslem dominance were "people of the book" and even if they weren't observing all the rituals of Islam, they pretty much got to go their own way. The churches often got co-opted as mosques (and vice-versa) Cortona in Spain has this lovely cathedral rising within the walls of a mosque that was itself built on the stones of an earlier Christian temple.
Again there is that veneration of simple origins such as Mohammed himself. If the later caliphs got carried away with the opulence and harems, well they were no weaker than some members of the Holy Roman Empire.
Rules of warfare:
They weren't exactly the Geneva Convention, but pretty close to it. This is a text I came across while researching an earlier post.
The actions and statements of the Prophet Muhammad and of the early Caliphs of Islam point to strong humanitarian considerations.
In a famous decree, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, the first Caliph, told his military commander: “Stop, O people, that I may give you ten rules for guidance on the battlefield. Do not commit treachery or deviate from the right path. You must not mutilate dead bodies; do not kill a woman, a child, or an aged man; do not cut down fruitful trees; do not destroy inhabited areas; do not slaughter any of the enemies’ sheep, cow or camel except for food; do not burn date palms, nor inundate them; do not embezzle spoils of war nor be guilty of cowardliness…You are likely to pass by people who have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them alone."
Of course they didn't all follow the code. Christians didn't at Jerusalem ("Kill them all; God will know His own") nor Buddhists persecuting the Rohingya in Myanmar. And commandments # 6 and 7 have been problematic for lots of us down through the centuries. They're about adultery and murder dontcha know?)
Others
Hindu
It seems to pre-date or at least be of similar vintage as the Abrahamic religions, possibly starting as an polytheistic culture along the Ganges. I found it was the source of the earliest piece of poetic drama on the planet - the Mahabaratta - which contains that Hindu holy book, the Bhavad Gita. Among the concepts we have borrowed from it are these:
concept of karma - What goes around, comes around. Play nice.
asceticism - Keep yourself lean and learned.
meditative practices - Aren't you glad you kept those yoga pants?
Buddhism
Siddhartha, a Hindu prince lived a life of luxury sheltered from scenes of the privations suffered by members of the lower castes, until one day he looked down from a tower on scenes of starvation and disease. He renounced his royal position and set out to find some meaning in life. That humble origin is still a valued aspect of the practice - some would not call even it a religion. You are probably familiar with these aspects of the Buddhist way:
meditative practices, mindfulness
ancestor veneration, respect for elderly
asceticism, way of the monk
None of those religions really stand up to scientific verification as origin explanations, but the values are still worth emulating. In Australia while on exchange I spoke with a young man, also a visitor - a rotary exchange student I believe - from Thailand. He said he would be returning to "take up the robes and the bowl" for a year. He meant that he would don the orange robes of a monk and take a begging bowl to spend a year training in humility on the streets. His father was a bank manager in Bangkok. Some training! You definitely want to believe in the benevolence of the dominant religion when you do that. Fortunately, the Thai people do.
Where do we all go wrong? Survival I think. As long as I believe stuff is in scarce supply then I'd better get enough for me and mine before the prices go up. And that "stuff" can be anything I'm convinced is a "gotta have it" to a "God told Whozits that I deserve it/gotta have it/got dibs on it". I try to look past the dogmatism and arrogance of religious cliques - I think friend Chris dubbed it a pietocracy - but often fail. I hope you're more successful in seeing and living the best of your beliefs.
Merry Hannuka. Go sacrifice a virgin. Or go sacrifice your liver at a liquor store. But dump your loose change into the Sally Ann kettle on your way out.