What Has Religion Done for the World Lately


In all the tragic news of the attack on Israel and the pending return attack on Gaza the over-arching issue is being ignored. This dispute was about religion when it started in 1946. It is still about religion. Does anyone think there is a lesson to be learned here?

If we go back to 1946, it was a time when the Hitler murder of Jews was still fresh on all minds across the world. We can understand today why people in charge at the time wanted to do something, anything, to at least in part offset the atrocities Jews had suffered. Jewish leaders said this, "We were given the land by God. We have never had a country since then. Give us back the land which rightfully belongs to us."  

There were two problems with this solution. First, there was no God so God could never have given that land to anyone. Second, those who were already living there felt a religious justification for their presence there. While the desire to do something for the Jews was almost universal, it never was an idea that would work. It could not work because it was two religions confronting each other. 

While I'm not an expert in the complex story of today's Isael, no one else seems to be either. All Presidents to my lifetime have tried to make it work and all have been unsuccessful. Today on Christian sites are articles chiding liberals who justify what happened to Israel. How could anyone with sense of right and wrong not condemn the Gaza Palestinians they ask? How could anyone condemn Israel?

The liberal people from Europe I correspond with are certain Jews could have lived peacefully in Palestine if they had not harassed Palestinians and driven the locals into the arms of extreme political groups. They argue the jihadists were not there in 1946 but grew out of abuse by the government of Israel. I have relatives who have lived there for decades who believe the same thing. 

Of course, we don't know how the entire experiment would have unfolded if there were no hard liners in Irael's politics. We know only one thing, the movement of European Jews into a majority Muslim area has not brought a peaceful coexistence. The two groups are killing each other in the names of their respective religions. This is what religion has done for and to humans.    

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