Thursday, October 27, 2005

Fear Causes All Conflict Among Humans

October 2005

Nature has dealt us many tough blows recently. Hurricanes killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands of both our human kin and animal friends. A devastating earthquake in Pakistan obliterated towns and killed tens of thousands in one fell swoop. Mudslides in Guatemala killed hundreds.

With all this going on, we don’t need to kill each other.

Yet, humans continue to make war and murder each other at staggering rates. In the Twentieth Century, it’s reported that we killed one hundred million of us. Those murders didn’t happen because of natural disasters. It was humans bombing, shooting, gassing, and beating people just like them. So, what causes humans to kill; what causes this primitive conduct?

The answer is always fear, plain and simple. We would not kill, attack, maim, and blow up other people if we weren’t afraid of them. And why is it important to know this? Because if we could just finally understand it’s fear that causes all anger, hate, war, murder, rape, abuse and everything else that isn’t love, then we can determine how to stop or at least drastically minimize all those archaic behaviors.

This is how it is. Humans are here on this planet. It’s not important to know why; we don’t have the capacity to really know. We’re just here. But we need the proper perspective. If we look around at the darkness of space or imagine nothingness, i.e., non-existence, this earth seems pretty darn wonderful, doesn’t it? In fact, it is a paradise. Teeming oceans, snow covered mountain tops, lakes and streams, soaring birds, gorgeous flowers, you name it. Every little thing on this planet is amazing. Unique in every way. Indeed, since we’re all here only a short time, this is our perfection.

We are literally family to everything we can see and know. We have some sort of divine energy – life – in us. Again, it’s not really important to know what that energy is; maybe someday scientists can tell us. Now, they only know that most of it seems to be some kind of dark energy and dark matter, whatever that is. Nonetheless, we’re all the same from the perspective of the Universe, simply manifestations of that energy. We’re all doing the exact same thing here - just being and living day to day, trying to do the best we can.

We should be able to live together in peace. There is no reason present in the environment around us that would cause conflict among humans. Just the fact that we’re here for such a short time, incapable of truly knowing where we go after life, should be enough reason to see all this around us as precious and to appreciate this opportunity of existence.

The religions preach the golden rules – love one another, don’t judge, forgive. But many also say we’re separate from god, ignoring that our essence is truly divine. And they threaten that – if we don’t act right – we’ll be separated from god -- forever. If we don’t do “what god wants,” we’re going to hell.

Of course, no one really knows what god wants. Neale Donald Walsch points this out clearly in his recent book entitled, appropriately, “What God Wants.” He says god doesn’t want anything. But, if there is a god who did want, wouldn’t it want us to enjoy this planet, love one another, and not kill each other in the name of arcane principles of government and social conduct? I would think so.

But humans insist on making rules for salvation and deciding what people should believe and how they should act. So much of the way man acts out is based on fear. Let’s look at some examples, but understand as you read, that whenever one is “afraid” of something, that is a fear.

Osama Bin Laden, the Islamic extremists, and terrorists are afraid of the influence of the West and also that the heathen ideas of our culture will destroy their religion and their view of a proper life according to the Koran.

George Bush and many American people are afraid of the terrorists and many were afraid of Saddam Hussein. He was a “threat” (meaning we were afraid, of course) and they took him out.

Conservatives are afraid of a lack of order and new ideas. Liberals are afraid of conservatives.

Christians are afraid that god’s laws will be broken. Agnostics and atheists are afraid that the Christians will take over and limit free expression and restrict individual rights.

A rapist is afraid that he can’t be happy or feel love the way he is, but needs control to feel worthy or special. A murderer is afraid of the person he kills, or the things that person represents. Why would anyone rape or kill if they loved?

I am afraid that people won’t understand who we are; that we are love, peace, and divinity at our core. I’m afraid humans won’t understand the true nature of life; that this is our perfection. I’m afraid people won’t understand that all separation among humans – through race, religion, or national boundaries – is based on fear. I’m afraid people will not learn that judgment and anger are based on fear. I’m afraid people won’t learn that we can all forgive fear, recognize our unity and sameness, and erase these primitive thoughts that control our global societies.

All of the conflicts that humans experience in society are based on fear, not love. If our society can learn to recognize the fear, let go of the fear – forgive, then we can finally have peace in this world. If we can just realize that we are all in the same boat, literally all on the same planet, and that we are family, we can let go of the things that divide us. We don’t need to fight one another. We should use the collective energies and wonderful talents we possess to help one another, not fight with one another over meaningless fears.

We have enough challenges with hurricanes, disease, and the other things the Mother Earth presents to us to stop killing and hating one another. Hate, anger, and everything else based on fear are worthless and divide us. Another way to think of it is that anything separating us is based on fear; our unity and similarity spring from love.

It’s time to change our minds and our lives. We just have to learn that fear causes our separation and self-destructive behavior. We can know love, but letting go of the fears that have controlled us, by forgiving the past and all those fears. We can love one another.