Opinion: Religion and Peace Are Not Mutually Exclusive

[rug]

What the Koran and the Bible teach us about tolerance and pluralism

Israel Shrenzel
May 05, 2017 1:32 PM

This newspaper has recently been the arena for a fierce campaign – a bit odd, somewhat in the spirit of the 18th-century, anticlerical, enlightenment movement – against the existence of God. The struggle is being led, zealously, by Rogel Alpher (“There is no God, and belief in him is stupidity”). His critique is not confined to a symbolic glance upward, of course: Believers themselves are also savaged – both those in Israel (primarily Jews, but also Muslims and Christians) and also our Palestinian neighbors, among whom faith is very widespread, and not only among proponents of Hamas.

According to Alpher, each side’s belief that God is on its side only serves to hasten the next war – and about that, I’m afraid, he’s right. Despairingly, he asserts, “The atheistic minority is surrounded by idiots” (“With the help of Hashem and Allah, war soon,” March 19).

Nor is the Palestinian case exceptional. A recent survey conducted in Egypt, whose population exceeds 90 million, found only 866 people who identified as atheists. Indeed, in the Arab world, anyone who publicly admits to being an atheist – and especially if he even hints that the Koran is the work of man – will suffer a bitter fate. Some Arab intellectuals have already experienced this on their flesh. The ability to discuss the holy scriptures openly and critically can legitimately be seen as a litmus test of tolerance toward “deviant” opinion. In this regard, the situation in the Arab and Islamic world is far graver than it is in Israel.

The debate over God’s existence would necessarily appear to be at an impasse. Of far greater importance, though, is the sociological fact that not a single believer in Israel is likely to waver in his faith or in the observance of the precepts because of articles in Haaretz. On the contrary: According to the demographic forecasts, both in our country and among the Palestinian public, we can expect the number of believers to increase. And in Israel, at least, no dramatic upheaval would seem to be in the offing regarding the numerical relationship between the dominant Orthodox stream and the other streams of Judaism.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.787497

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.772294

[edhopper]

1. I do not shy away from saying

religion is the cause of much conflict.
But I would say people and peace are mutually exclusive.

[rug]

2. I'm a little more optimistic.

I think the nature of human interaction is cooperative, not competitive or dominating. The species would not have survived otherwise.

I think people living in a fair, cooperative, just and equal society, can not only get along but thrive.

The trick is to rein in all those social forces, including religion, that tend to exalt the worst in people living socially.

[edhopper]

3. I think people can live realitively peacefully

with in a culture. But all mankind, world wide is not something i think we will see.