INTRODUCTION TO BOOK II
SEMITIC RELIGIONS
The
Semitic religions i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are based on revelation
which asserts that God reveals himself through the agency of man variously known
as a prophet, messenger or messiah. These men, who project themselves as holy,
claim that unless people seek God through their agency, they will never find
Him.
If God is the Father of mankind,
then all of His children should have direct access to Him. What kind of God is
He who needs an agent to approach Him? In fact, it is not God who requires an
agent; it is these self-appointed messengers and messiahs who have imposed their
agency on God. Why? Because they want to be treated as God in the disguise of
God's agent.
Why do they want to be treated as
God? It is because they suffer from the most acute dominance-urge which impels a
person to assert his superiority for establishing his right to rule and worship.
Revelation is the most effective device to achieve this goal. A revelationist
pretends that he asserts and does only what God tells him, to assure people that
he has no axe to grind in it. Thus people fall for him more easily.
When we critically examine the
teachings and lives of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, we realise that they were
human but urgently wanted to be acknowledged as God through the device of
revelation. Judaism, Christianity and Islam have not served the purpose of
mankind, but of their founders who enjoy divine status at the expense of human
dignity. In fact, these religions are a continuance of the Middle Eastern
mythology in varying forms which came into being for replacing the old gods with
new ones.
How has this happened? It is caused
by the fact that each revelationist, that is, messenger or messiah, demands
total belief in his self at the exclusion of others and thus becomes the sole
saviour of his followers. This leads to fundamentalism which represents a
condition of complete brainwashing turning the believer into a robot which loses
the dignity of conscious behaviour. Fundamentalism is the chief source of human
hatred, disunity and indignity. It clearly shows that revelation is the source
of misguidance. Man has lost his way and is treading the oath which leads him in
the opposite direction to his destination.
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