Religion breeds arrogance. Religionists might deny that and argue that whatever they are teaching is actually the opposite, humility. True, the religionists do not directly preach arrogance. But this is what ultimately sinks into the heads of the very narrow-minded sheep.
Of late, there has been a worryingly increased number of incidents involving religious extremism. Almost every day we stumble upon news items and posts on social media about one’s misconceived and misconstrued notions of a certain religion and/or its practices. My question is, why?
Why is there an increase of such cases?
Why is there an increase of ignorance in knowledge?
Why is there an increase of people lacking simple common sense?
Perhaps it’s not an increase at all. Perhaps it has always been there, always in existence. It only seems like an increase probably because of the availability of outlets such as social media for these people to create a ruckus and plant the seeds of disharmony among mankind.
Every day we wake up to posts regarding religious extremism and fanatics behind them whose sole purpose in life seem to be creating havoc. Of course, most people would be angered and insulted with the accusations found on these posts on social media. The floodgates would be opened, and netizens would start sharing out the posts which would end up going viral; most of them in disagreement and resentment. Then the best part: in a globalised world, people from all walks of life finds out and start slapping labels on such with accusation such as – extremist, fanatic, brainless, a joke among a tonne of others.
It is like the Nazis brainwashing the children from school that Germans are the superior race. They do not even need to say that the non-Germans are an inferior race. But after years of brainwashing children with the ‘fact’ that Germans are a superior race these children grow up to become adults with the notion that non-Germans are inferior people.
Thou Shall Not Kill!!!
History is nothing but assisted and recorded memory. It might almost be said to be no science at all, if memory and faith in memory were not what science necessarily rest on. In order to sift evidence we must rely on some witness, and we must trust experience before we proceed to expand it. The line between what is known scientifically and what has to be assumed in order to support knowledge is impossible to draw. Memory itself is an internal rumour; and when to this hearsay within the mind we add the falsified echoes that reach us from others, we have but a shifting and unseizable basis to build upon. The picture we frame of the past changes continually and grows every day less similar to the original experience which it purports to describe.
History is not an exact science. Our memory plays tricks on us and many times we block out what is painful and remember (or think we remember) what is pleasing to us. Russia and America agreed to unite to defeat Hitler but their reasons differed. And post-WWII proved that when the Cold War erupted and the world was divided into two, one side ‘red’. And even before the war wounds could heal the world was dragged into so many new wars, which we are still fighting until today.
I Don't Understand, Help Me Understand...
Is Arrogance & Dignity an act of Disobedience?
Amongst the noblest of Allah’s creatures are the Angels. There are various categories of Angels and each has its own noble mission. One of these Angels, the chief of all the Angels, is Gabriel (Jibrael), whose function is to convey Allah’s messages to humanity through His prophets.
Allah also created the Jinns. The Jinns were created from fire and are quite different from the Angels who were created from light.
The Angels are Allah’s soldiers and their main purpose is to worship Him and carry out His Commands. They are pure and of noble character. The Jinns, however, are of a different characteristic – some of them are good, while others downright evil.
One of the most notorious of the Jinns is the Iblis (Satan), who was originally of equal status to the Angels. However, when Allah commanded them to prostrate to Adam they refused and, therefore, became a symbol of evil.
After Allah had breathed a spirit into Adam, He instructed all other creations such as Angels and Jinns to bow down to Adam. Iblis refused to prostrate to Adam because he regarded Adam, who was made from mere earth, as weaker and therefore inferior to Jinns, who were made from fire.
Also, Iblis found that Adam had internal organs (hollow inside) whereas Iblis had no abdomen. Iblis believed he was more laudable than Adam so he refused to prostrate to Adam although Allah had commanded him to do so.
Who is Arrogant & Who Is tolerant among its Creations? Likewise for a soulmate there should be a vow "Do unto others as you would have them Do unto you" or should it be "An Eye for An Eye and A tooth for a tooth?
Allah chided Iblis, saying that he is but a humble creature. How could he be so arrogant and defy Allah? Iblis, still refusing to repent, asked Allah for a postponement of punishment till the Day of Judgment.
Iblis did not want forgiveness. Neither did he want to repent to redeem himself. He accepted the punishment for his crime of disobedience but merely wanted the punishment delayed till the Day of Judgment.
And the reason Iblis wanted time was so that he could take revenge on man for what happened to him. Iblis wanted to trap man and mislead him. Iblis said he will destroy all the descendants of Adam save for a few who will obey Allah and be spared a fate in Hell. Allah allowed Iblis to carry out his plan with a warning to man that those who follow Iblis will suffer Iblis’s fate in Hell.
After Eve had been created, Iblis tried to tempt Adam to do evil. Everything in Paradise was allowed except the fruit from only one tree, which Allah forbade Adam to touch. But Eve succumbed to Iblis’s temptation and ate from the forbidden tree. She then persuaded Adam to do the same, which he did. Iblis had succeeded in leading man astray and they immediately fell naked.
Adam confessed his transgression and Allah forgave him. However, he was punished for his disobedience and for succumbing to Iblis’s treachery and he was evicted from Paradise.
Yes, indeed Satan aka Fallen Angel was arrogance and is A Racist into thinking of itself being a better Species to Adam ie. Mankind. But before Adam's creation, Satan had been worshiping God throughout its existence and was consider a true follower. And there are some text quoted that deep in Satan's heart it is thought that God was testing its faith for in the mind of Satan He had been a true worshiper of God and only God is to be worship or prostrate upon. Why the need to prostrate on another creature or being who is of lower quality or nature? ie. Of dirt and Mud?
And so the story goes that Satan was blinded by faith; by the belief of the system that leads to his downfall and as such the hatred grew and he vows to revenge on Adam by making a deal with God so as to trap Adam's seeds by misleading man till the Day of judgement. Will Satan win or Will God wins the bet?
In a place of creation, it is said that God had punish both Adam, Eve & Satan to be expel to Earth ie. a place of Dirt or Mud aka. Shit... A God of Compassion & mercy that punishes its Creation by going against his will but to some thinkers or great religion scholars that is how the story goes as the story of Creation is a pre-written story written by the Creator himself for God knows best.
There are in some context a belief that Cain the first born son of Adam & Eve was a product of Eve & Satan as Cain has an evil traits of Satan for He is the first man to kill his own brother Abel (product of Adam & Eve).
Likewise when the Angel ask God why do you need to create another creature that will give destruction to the world and the reply by God is "You know not what I know".
It Is My Way, Or the Highway!!!
That's the facts of Life as we humans are govern by Laws be it Man-Made or God's Law. The only place of freedom is the After Life a place in Heaven as such One can do whatever it wants but yet the maximum of virgins that is available for man is strictly 72 virgins and it is only for those who die as a martry. So does creation of Hell comes after Satan goes against God or was Hell created before the incident?
The More You Live, The More You Love!!!
Religious violence has always been around since religion was first invented. The Jews were at one time guilty of it until the Romans wiped out the dissidents and the rest became very passive and did not dare utter a peep.
Then came the breakaway Jewish Jesus movement and the Romans whacked them, too. Then this breakaway Jewish Jesus movement came under state control and became passive as well, until the state began to promote state-sponsored violence.
And now, of course, we have the new-kid-on-the-block, the Muslims, who have taken over from where the Jews and Christians left off. And some of the violence is also state-sponsored or started as state-sponsored then got out of hand (like, for example, the Talibans, which is a US-Pakistan creation).
Basically, the violence is the result of arrogance. And believers of religions are indoctrinated into becoming arrogant. The message to become arrogant is not a direct and open message. But the underlying message is still there.
We are the chosen one. That means the others are not chosen. So that is something to be arrogant about.
Only we shall go to heaven. That means the others are going to hell. So that is something to be arrogant about.
Only we are followers to the true religion. That means the others are following false religions. So that is something to be arrogant about.
Only we are right. That means the others are wrong. So that is something to be arrogant about.
Ours is the final religion to replace all religions before this and there shall be no more religions after this. That means all other religions are bullshit. So that is something to be arrogant about.
No religionist will say that all religions are the same and are equal and all good people will go to heaven and all evil people will go to hell never mind what religion they may believe in or follow. If they say this then there would be no superiority complex and no more arrogance.
But religionists will not say this. In fact, they are forbidden from saying this because it will contradict what they are trying to teach: which is we are right and the others are wrong, ours is true and the others are false, etc.
If you speak to Muslims and suggest that certain things they believe in may not be true they get very high-and-mighty and holier-than-thou. They will reply that you know nothing and that you should go learn about Islam first before you talk.
They assume that since you said something they do not agree with it can only mean this is because you are ignorant and have never studied Islam and that if you had you would not contradict their beliefs. It cannot register in their minds that you have, in fact, studied Islam and the reason you contradict their beliefs is because you are learned rather than ignorant.
This is the arrogant streak that they possess, which they do not even realise they possess and which they do not even recognise as arrogance. They get very high-and-mighty and holier-than-thou if you say something they do not agree with. Even Christians are like this and it is nothing short of arrogance.
And history has taught us that time and time again when a community or society is arrogant and feels that it is superior to others it resorts to violence. Take the US as an example. Its religion is western democracy cum capitalism and communism cum socialism is its enemy. So it has no issues about going to war in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc., so that western-style democracy can also be implemented in those countries.
Leaders like Marcos, Suharto and many more were evil by modern standards. But they were democrats. Hence America allowed them to rule. If Marcos, Suharto and the others had tried to turn their ‘democratic’ countries into communist countries then America would have toppled them long before they fell. This is America’s arrogance. You follow my true religion of western democracy and you can be as evil as you want. However, if you try to adopt some other non-western democratic ‘religion’ then we will topple you. It does not matter whether you are good or evil. What matters is the ‘religion’ you follow. And this is what is happening in the world of religions as well. It is the arrogance that religions breeds.
So is arrogance a Good or Evil Deeds? If it is good we should be thankful to the Fallen Angel aka Satan for bringing Man to its downfall so as to be part of existence here on Earth. Right?
Hail Satan!!! The more You Live, The More You Love Truly!!!
What if I had said there are too many cases of priests having sex with boys and that the church should do something about it? Would that be considered as insulting Christianity? In the first place even the hierarchy of priests is not a Christian thing but a custom borrowed from the pre-Christianity religions. And that was what Jesus was trying to eradicate.