In terms of world history, monotheism is a relatively new
phenomenon, although it is now the dominant force in world religion, with
Christianity and Islam leading the way.
One abiding feature of the growth of monotheism through the
centuries has been a massive rise in violence inspired by religion, and this is
not generally something that one associates with polytheistic religions, the
adherents of which seem to be generally far more tolerant of other religious
standpoints.
The world has been made starkly aware in recent years of
violence perpetrated by extremists claiming to be upholders of Islam, but
Christianity cannot be let off the hook so easily.
Leaving aside the hatred that members of one religion might
have for another, Christians seem to be particularly adept at directing their
ire at members of other factions who also profess to be Christians.
Historically, the 16th and 17th centuries seem to have
been the high-water mark for intolerance within Christianity, with a series of
religious wars being fought in Europe that led to hundreds of thousands of
deaths.
Probably the most notorious incident during this period was
the organized slaughter in France of Protestants by Catholics on St
Bartholomew’s Day (24th August) 1572, when it is possible that as
many as 10,000 men, women and children were hacked to pieces because of their
“heresy”. It is worth noting that more people died because of their religion
within 24 hours than in 300 years of supposed persecution under the Roman
Empire.
This is the interesting thing – despite the string of
stories about the martyrdom of early Christians, many of whom are remembered
today as saints of the Church, there were only four relatively short waves of
persecution during the Empire. In general, the polytheistic Emperors of Rome
were tolerant of non-official religions being practiced in parts of the Empire,
but they tended to become distrustful of people who would not include the
emperors on their list of beings to be worshipped. This was mainly down to
political rather than religious reasons – when the Emperor could not rely on
the loyalty of a group of subjects he was likely to be suspicious of that
group’s motives in terms of possible disruption to good order or even plots
against his person.
We cannot let Christianity off the hook by saying that this
was all in the past and everybody has been perfectly well behaved ever since,
because that plainly is not true. Many examples could be cited, such as the
running sore in Irish politics that derives from the distrust (and sometimes
hatred) between Catholics and Protestants – these being two groups that claim
to follow the “Prince of Peace” as their spiritual leader.
I am not claiming that Christianity is the sole culprit. Far
from it – the split in Islam between Sunni and Shia has led to countless deaths
of people with deep religious convictions, albeit the wrong ones as far as
their opponents are concerned. There are many other splits within Islam that
have given rise to terrible violence being visited on innocent people who had
the misfortune to be born into the “wrong” sect.
One abiding factor in all this seems to be the overwhelming
belief of many people that they have the sole answer, in religious terms, this
being a direct consequence of monotheism. They are right in their belief, which
means that everyone else must be wrong if they do not hold exactly the same
opinion. If you are not my friend, you must be my foe.
Unfortunately, the seeds of intolerance yield bitter fruit,
and most humans do not seem to have the intelligence to appreciate that
violence solves absolutely nothing, whatever its motivation.
So what is the answer? One would like to hope that humanity
will eventually come to its senses and realise that monotheistic religious
belief, in which one size fits all, needs to be rejected. It would be wonderful
if everyone who holds a religious belief accepted that the beliefs of others
are every bit as valid as their own, and that constantly trying to persuade (or
force) others to follow your religion is a fool’s errand, but what are the
chances of that?
Let me end with a favourite quote (from Woody Allen): If
Jesus came back and saw what was being done in his name, he'd never stop
throwing up.
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