Faith Re-Visited

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Aug 22, 2010

So while it is just silly to question the faith of others, it can actually be quite dangerous to question the belief systems of some people. It is not just the loud obscenities that you get in your ear, or the invitation to tea that you did not get while everyone else you know seem to be attending; questioning some people’s belief systems can actually be life threatening.

By batsman

Actually there is not very much to discuss about faith. It is something that is held by the individual and not something that can be reasonably assured or confirmed in others. One can never be totally sure of someone else’s faith although some people (e.g. God’s Prophet) find it easy to share theirs. Besides, it is something that is not readily amenable to intellectual examination or explained by intellectual discourse.

Beliefs however are somewhat different. Over generations, belief systems are built up and taught to followers. Some belief systems do not need to be tested by scientific methods to be valid and intimately held by its followers. Some which are based on observance of physical laws need to be. However even in these “scientific” belief systems, not everything can be proven by scientific methods so even in these, cliques are formed.

All of these, even the scientific ones, are capable of being formed into religions, e.g. scientology which is more honest about what it is and “Big Bang” theorists who are in denial about what they really are.

Although the dictionary says that there must be a “god” for a belief system to be theoretically classified as a religion, in messy real life a “god” can be really anything that is not questionable e.g. to the evolutionists, evolution is not questionable, to the “Big Bang” theorists the Big Bang is not questionable, to the Bhuddists the cycle of life cannot be questioned, to the Zionists the right of Jews to return to Palestine cannot be questioned and to the Bushites the right to exterminate Muslims cannot be questioned.

This “not questionable” thing can even be a real living person, so in real life, there are actually many “living gods”. I believe many Malaysians aspire to be one of these. In fact even the dictionary itself can be a “god” as some people quote it as “proof” as if it is the gospel truth. To these people, there are actually many gods such as their text books, their newspapers, their TV, their bosses and even their fatty wives, yet they are the ones who shout the loudest obscenities against the beliefs of others.

Let us try and examine why. In spite of common roots and much commonality, the classical religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam have important differences.

In Judaism racial purity gets more emphasis because of the “Chosen People” concept, so we find that everybody else seems to be treated as not really important – even the European Jews and Oriental Jews cannot mix in spite of holding on to common belief systems. So it is not just the Nazis who were obsessed with racial purity although in the Nazi case obsession is a child’s word.

In Christianity, the belief system itself gets more emphasis, so theology is important and anyone who threatens the unity or wholeness of theology is apt to receive harsh treatment. So even when Christianity split up partly because the theology was wrenched apart to serve different causes, the tradition of suppressing questions was kept in its various forms in all the Christian sects.

This tradition is so deeply ingrained in the western world that the part of scientific tradition which developed in the western world actually imbibed some of it in spite of scientific claims to champion questions so that there are actually many professors including some commenters in blogs who dislike too many questions from their students. Unfortunately we have learnt some of these ways too because we like to suck up to science, status and power.

In Islam, the emphasis is on the way of life of Muslims. So while capitalism is originally based on territory and it is nationalism that binds the community together, Islam’s emphasis on the Muslim way of life binds the Muslim community of many races and many nationalities together. So anything which threatens this way of life is not well received, just as anything which threatens sovereign borders of the capitalist nation state is not well received.

Having said all of the above, in real life, things get messy and there are many cross influences as communities copy from each other to protect or advance themselves. For example, Zionism got influenced by Nazi treatment of Jews and treated their own victims as sub-human creatures thus becoming even more influential and more powerful than Judaism itself and Muslims who are also capitalists can behave in surprising ways even to Muslims themselves.

Real life is sometimes stranger than fiction and some tenuous and hard to believe links may even exist. For example, it is possible that British officers who served in both Palestine and Malaya may have brought their experiences of Zionist methods to Malaya and taught them to their protégés such that these protégés became influenced by Zionist values and behaviour. Any gaps seem to be closed many years later when consultants with Zionist links were hired to help them extend their influence. This sounds speculative, but it seems to be the only logical explanation why some Malaysians behave so much like the Zionists.

In trying to explain the behaviour of communities holding various belief systems, it is also necessary to understand humans as a component of these communities.

Humans make decisions based on emotions in spite of their much hyped ability to think and reason. This is because we still instinctively behave more like animals and things such as philosophy, science, mathematics and all those that involve the higher intellect of humans are only very recent developments of human civilization.

In animals, we find that aggressive behaviour is the result of only 2 things – the reaction against threats (against self, mates, young or even territory) and the need for food (including sexual appetite). In humans unfortunately, owing to our ability to think, strategize and plan (which could also be a curse) these 2 characteristics of aggression have been skillfully manipulated into weapons for power struggles and for corruption.

For example in Malaysia the 30% Bumiputra equity thingy has been much hyped as needed to protect against the suffering and abuse of Bumiputras. This triggers the aggressive reaction against threats and danger among the Bumiputras. At the same time, the prospects of acquiring profitable contracts reserved for suffering and abused Bumiputras trigger the aggressive reaction to hunger and greed. So both aggressive reactions are triggered at the same time. This is a potent and dangerous mix.

But this is not the end of the story. After 50 long years the nons started to question why the Bumiputras still feel suffering and abuse especially when they see the facts that the oil and gas, banking and transport sectors are already monopolized by Bumiputra interests and the civil service is almost wholly Bumiputra with most of the scholarships, licenses, approvals, tenders and contracts have been going to Bumiputras for the last 50 years. From the evidence of their eyes, they see that Bumiputras have not only achieved the 30% equity needed for social balance, they have exceeded it and not about to give up acquiring even more – even after acquiring monopoly in many areas.

Unfortunately for Malaysia, it is also a fact that most of the Bumiputras are still suffering and abused as claimed by the government even after 50 long years. So how are these contradictions to be sorted out? Again the evidence of the eyes comes into play – open and arrogant rampant corruption and abuse of power – a few Bumiputras are rolling in unimaginable luxury while the rest are still suffering and abused. A new social imbalance of corruption and sin is developing.

The country is headed down the path of ruin. So what do humans who are skilled at strategizing and planning do? They learn from the Zionists and come up with the concept of Ketuanan Melayu. They accused anyone who questioned including the suffering and abused Bumiputras of being traitors, lack patriotism and morality and charge them with sodomy and sedition, all the while bonking around happily amongst themselves.

Now the nons cannot even question and complain anymore. In their frustration, they start blaming Islam and Malays, but this only worsens the situation and the clever humans become even more powerful.

This is how religions and belief systems which are supposed to protect the weak and innocent get dragged into power struggles of the rich and powerful. This is how religions and belief systems which champion justice are manipulated and turned into instruments of injustice. This is how religion gets blamed for all the bad things in life by those that manipulate and abuse. This is how the victims are victimized.

(As a matter of small distraction in methods of victimization, the victim needs to be demonized first before the real hurting can begin. So if 5 times more Americans believe that Obama is a Muslim, the danger to Obama’s life just increased 5 fold overnight and you can thank the Zionists for that)

So please don’t question faith, mix up faith and beliefs, dump shit on those who believe in the Adam and Eve story as being superstitious, etc. It is really academic, silly and non-productive given the seriousness of the situation above.