Tip Toeing in a faith based country.
One of the most striking things to a westerner about being in Morocco is the predominant role that religion plays, from the call to prayer, to the clothing, to the praying, to the religious TV shows on the big screens in restaurants. Muslim faith is everywhere you turn. For example, I just returned from lunch and watching a handsome young singer perform in a beautifully polished music video. This is common, but what was different this time was that his words were footnoted in english. Here’s what he was saying:
Oh my Mohammed,
I lay down all personal attributes to you
and do as you wish,
I love you more than anything,
I would sacrifice my mother and father to you,
Oh my Mohammed.
Sure, some of that is the usual sell out to sell records. But what if he is so blinded by faith as to be able to murder his parents? And what if he really is willing to become a wet noodle with regard to his own intelligence if his mosque requests it. Man, that’s faith!
And though presented as a very high and honorable quality, it is as vulgar and foreign to me as some American rap music that degrades women. But it’s much much deeper.
I wonder how many of the good kind warm Moroccan people that I have met, if extorted by their religion which tells them to love a 5th century person enough to sacrifice their own families for, (yes the meaning is kill, not renounce), would turn against me if their religious leaders were to decide that all infidels in the country must me stoned?
The Koran teaches that it is wrong to love any thing more than God- represented by Mohammed. That God is completely beyond the ability to conceive of or think about. And that therefore a good Muslim has complete, total and unquestioning faith, surrender, and submission to “God’s” will. And like Christianity, it is strongly emphasized that there is only one God, Allah.
How crippling to intelligence and advancement. The easily manipulated destructive power of a people deeply steeped in faith is easily felt, and makes me tip toe a bit. Indeed, if it can happen in America, where Christians, despite their advantages in education and world perspective, are misled by faith to do any number of absurdities, it can happen here.
My views about religion are shifting. In America I felt the best attitude to take towards religion was tolerance. In Italy on the Camino de Santiago I loved religion as an endearing cultural artifact. But now I see religion, to the degree that people defer their own sensible judgements to “God’s”, as a great threat to peace and human advancement. More than ever I feel that it is not possible to understand humanity without understanding religion. I wish it wasn’t so.
Ok, off my soapbox.
Beyond that I am 90% recovered. I’ll have one more day of stationaryism before resuming my explorations.
Really, what do you think?
I think it’s complicated.
I think religions contain much wisdom and many useful ideas.
I think it’s beautiful in the way I see some people use their faith to compel growth and service to others; that used in this manner it is something to be admired.
I think it’s ugly in the way some people and societies use their ‘faith’ to control and permit deplorable behaviors that reflect a low consciousness.
I think it serves basic human needs (connection, belonging, social, need for certainty, etc.).
I think many people practice what they practice for the same reason they choose their political beliefs; it’s what they grew up with; it’s normal, a way of life in their family and communities and thus understandable that they perpetuate it.
I think it’s fascinating that intelligent people suspend their intelligence and view myths not as something from which to glean wisdom but as literal historical occurrences.
I think it’s not going anywhere any time soon, so I just try to be understanding of why people practice it and see the beauty in how it is serving them at this point.
I think around the world religion is shifting as we are shifting individually and collectively.
I think I’ve stated the obvious.
Just off the top of my head,
Religion, is something I stepped away from when I was 12 years.
Everything in me said, I’m not a sinner and I don’t need a middle
Man. Maybe there’s the key. Man. Trying to take control
Of something none controllable.
Something so vast, that words fall short.
From what I know, at this time, while we are here in the body, it’s like looking into an unending space.
Source is so vast with no words able to corral it.
That has been difficult for those that have had a need to control what
Happens on this planet.
Control is usually done with some type of fear.
Looks like this could be a big discussion. ; )
I prefer to connect, within, to the light source of my being.
That’s what works for me.
Perhaps stepping away from ” Man Made Religion ”
people could have a chance to ” Wake Up ”
Into ” the stream of consciousness ”
( awareness, our greater intelligence )
Not intellect
When you said, you don’t think it’s possible to understand humanity
Without understanding Religion.
I had the same feeling I had when I was in High School History class.
Disappointed with the system of LEARNING.
How where we going to Grow into a better species,
if we make our decisions from the same mind set that created the problems.
We need to shift what we are looking at.
Blessings…….Were all ” Full Of It “………
…. to The Light Within Us All
A good summation. However, I think there is a glossing over of the collateral damage that religion does. For example, the top 50 safest cities in the world are all in countries with very low percentages of religious believers. In the US, the lowest violent crime rate states are VErmont and Oregon, which also are the least religious.
I could go on and on. In my life I am taking religion off the shelf of things that I don’t talk about. I have been self muzzled by my thinking “Oh, it’s religion, it’s special, we must honor it, can’t treat it like any other strange behavior.”
Hi Cynthia,
I love your continuous contact with the wonder of it all. And your self responsibility and unwillingness to let anyone else control your thinking. You are not a good religious candidate! Thank you.
Continued…
What We Focus On,
Is What We See And Why We Behave The Way We Do.
What Ever We’re Focusing On…. Is What We’re Supporting In Our World.
THE MEDIA HAS FULL KNOWLEDGE OF THIS AND THE ONES BEHIND
THE MESSAGES PULL THE STRINGS.
To Shawn …..one that knows how to stir up the soup… ; )
I like stirring the soup!