Wrong Religion in Iraq

I was going to save my religious commentary for another day, but this article: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_quran_051808/ deserves to be addressed.

 

The gist of the article is that a Soldier was removed from Iraq for using a copy of the Quran for target practice.  The only thing he did wrong, in my opinion, was to leave the Quran at the Iraqi Firing Range.  If he had took his target back to his FOB, would this have even been an issue?

 

I am a firm believer in the tolerance of everyone’s religion or lack thereof.  You believe what you want, I’ll believe what I believe, and if we don’t agree, I’m not worried about it.  After a thorough period spent researching various religions around the world (including Islam, Christianity, and CFSM among others), it seems that there is just as much evidence to support all of them and absolutely no proof for any of them.  Each has its own fervent following who “know” that they are right and have had personal conversations or incidents with their respective gods – except for the CFSM people, they actually do KNOW that their religion is just silly.  I think most of the “personal” experiences are a result of chemical interactions in the brain that produce that sense of “presence” many people have with their gods.  But, that’s beside the point here.

 

The point is, no religion should be respected any more or less than any other religion by a government organization – such as the military.  If this Soldier had used the Quran, the Bible, and every other religious book out there for target practice, at least he would have been treating them all equally.  So, if I go back, I’ll be sure to gather up all the religious texts I can for target practice.  If the respective gods of those religions really care that I’m using their words to improve my aim instead of my soul, they’ll have to take care of it themselves.  However, having said that, I don’t think any of the gods in question will bother to protect their Holy Words.  Worst case scenario looks like I might just get a free trip home.

 

The bottom line on religion for me is that none of them has a lock on the truth.  Each is an expression of a particular culture’s foundation in ancient mythology.  Each story in each book was originally told or written to provide a moral foundation or example of how people should behave.  From the dawn of time, people have searched for the “why” of existence.  When nothing presented itself, they invented gods to give them something to look at besides themselves.  From there, religion blossomed and spread and instead of being stories to teach morality, they turned into the “truth” and people used their gods and their beliefs to kill each other.  Religion has been the bane of human-kind from the beginning and until people figure out how to let go of the idea of “magic” and accept reality as it is, we will continue to be doomed.  If we never let go, religion will ultimately be the cause of the end of the human race.

 

And the rest of the universe still won’t know or care.