I was looking back in history, trying unsuccessfully to discover what all the fuss was about, and came upon this:
Yep, we have a couple of synagogues, some Catholic churches, many Protestant denominations, even a Greek Orthodox church around here---- many believers---- and, darn, no sectarian violence or religious war.
As I'm sure you realize, the peaceful coexistance that we often see among the religious occurs mainly because the individuals concerned are no longer true believers. They have placed the demands of conscience and the interests of the community above the precepts of their religions, and quietly abandoned the more abrasive aspects.
When Christians really believed in Christianity, we had inquisitions and crusades. Islam is a younger religion, not yet mellowed by reason and social restraint, so we still see the occasional jihad.
I suspect that evolution will continue, and that someday both Christians and Muslims will formally abandon the doctrine of exclusivity and the emphasis on evangelism, the two factors which contribute most to religious conflict. On that day the world will become a better place. |
