Religion Is Not A Nice Thing. It

Whatever Conclusions We Reach About The Reality Of God, The History Of This Idea Must Tell Us Something Important About The Human Mind And The Nature Of Our Aspiration.

We Have To Make A Disciplined Effort To Find Out What Our Governments Are Doing In These Various Parts Of The World And What Is Actually Happening. We Have To Learn To Listen To Each Other's Stories. Something We Are Not Very Good At.

The First Person To Promulgate The Golden Rule, Which Was The Bedrock Of This Empathic Spirituality, Was Confucius 500 Years Before Christ.

A God Who Kept Tinkering With The Universe Was Absurd; A God Who Interfered With Human Freedom And Creativity Was A Tyrant. If God Is Seen As A Self In A World Of His Own, An Ego That Relates To A Thought, A Cause Separate From Its Effect, He Becomes A Being, Not Being Itself. An Omnipotent, All‐knowing Tyrant Is Not So Different From Earthly Dictators Who Make Everything And Everybody Mere Cogs In The Machine Which They Controlled. An Atheism That Rejects Such A God Is Amply Justified.

Islam Is A Religion Of Success. Unlike Christianity, Which Has As Its Main Image, In The West At Least, A Man Dying In A Devastating, Disgraceful, Helpless Death. The Cross, Crucified, And That Turned Into Victory. Mohammad Was Not An Apparent Failure. He Was A Dazzling Success, Politically As Well As Spiritually, And Islam Went From Strength To Strength To Strength.