An eye for an eye or forgiveness?

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Some people manage to abuse any good principle that is given to them. I guess that if you want to be self-centered, you can easily bend any principle around until it suits you. Egoistic people make me angry, and they smell ugly too. Worst of all are those who hide their egoistic motives behind a cloth of religious fervor.

Let's look at two principles. The first is the 'eye for an eye' principle that is written in the Old Testament of the Bible (i properly capitalize). The second is the principle of forgiveness that is taught by most Christian groups.

I'm not diving into the sources from which the principles are quoted. I'll try to use good heart and good sense. If you don't like that don't read on.

What good principle could there be behind the phrase 'an eye for an eye'? I know that the adagio has been misused as justification to strike back on any enemy that purportedly hurt you. The Old Testament was written by people of old times. I think they were interested in where we came from and how we had to live. I assume they were serious people and were often inspired to write their texts. So assuming that from their good inspiration they meant something beneficial, what could it be?

If someone gives you an eye, give back an eye. If someone does you a good deed, do it back. If someone gives you love, give it back. Doesn't that sound much better?

If you stole an eye from someone, you owe that person an eye. If you stole from a people their land, you should return that land. If you stole from a people their culture, you should give it back to them and even learn from their traditions. If you took from The Earth its beauty and richness, you should be obliged to spend your life making the Earth whole again. If you became wealthy in an extraordinary way (of course Bill Gates is a million times better person and works a million times more than a hungry baby in a developing country...) you should not be obliged to give away just a percentage of your wealth but you should experience the same hunger for a time, just so you know again what life really is.

What about forgiveness? Forgiveness is a much more elevated principle than the Old-Testament spirit of requital, Christians tell us to believe. It's a question to me whether the practice of forgiveness has really been introduced by Christians, but let's look at the principle behind. Suppose you did something wrong, would forgiveness mean that you don't have to pay retribution for it?

Let's look at the crime that people destroyed so many of the trees of the Earth. Your own children suffer because the trees are away. Now you say you are sorry and you are forgiven, assumingly because of a certain principle of salvation. But what about the trees? Are they back? Is the Earth healthy again? Do your children have a good life now because you have been saved?

Forgiveness surely can't be that simple. Let's take the principle in a different meaning. You cut the trees, you sold them for money and didn't care what it meant for everyone who needed the trees. Now you must bring back the trees, restore the soil of the Earth, cleanse the polluted air and spend a whole lot of time to make your children happy where you first made them unhappy. When you have done that all and you have really understood how wrong you did, then forgiveness means that nobody talks anymore about the pains and suffering you have once inflicted. You are forgiven by your victims for what you did once wrong. You are forgiven by God, by your fellow men, your children. They all love you again. Maybe most important of all, you can love yourself again. What a beautiful principle of forgiveness!

May 25, 2006

Material blessing proof of God's love?

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There is a widespread belief among many who call themselves faithful that the wealth they gathered is proof of God's love for them. I don't recall the exact quotations from which they derive such belief, but it goes more or less in the line that God blesses the ones who are faithful, or blesses those who follow God's laws.

There seems to be a quite big problem with this thinking. I do also believe that God will bless a person who does right. But if we take this in a simple way we are forced to the conclusion that all poor and miserable people would be in their condition because they or their ancestors did once sin. All rich people would be rich because they did right. It surely cannot be that simple. It is actually rather outrageous to make such simple, i would say fundamentalist statements.

So let's assume that God blesses those who are faithful. But what does blessing mean? What would God mean with blessing a person? A person who wants to get rich considers wealth to be a blessing. A person who wants to get powerful considers power to be a blessing. A person who wants to get knowledgeable considers knowledge to be the blessing. Again someone else would find it a great blessing to get many children. People have all kind of opinions about 'blessings' but what matters is what God would consider to be a blessing for us.

Let's do some thought experiments. Suppose a person is addicted to the desire for money. That person goes to church and follows all the rites of his or her religion. The person really likes money and works hard and cheats a little, all within the law of course, and gathers great wealth. The person considers all the riches the result of doing right, of having the right faith. I imagine that God could desire that such person would lose all the money and becomes homeless; after many years the person comes to his or her self and finds out that the greed for money did destroy his or her inner life. I imagine that God would consider it to be a blessing that this person would lose all money and come to a deeper understanding of life.

So in this case God could consider it to be a blessing that a person loses all money, but the person thinks that blessing means getting more money. Rather complicated! Did i say now that all poor and hungry people are in such condition because they once did sin? No, i am not saying that at all. I believe people have a responsibility to care for each other. Some people may get wretched because they were lazy, others may loose their wealth and well-being because others did them wrong -- there could be so many reasons for that.

It's a common way of thinking of certain believers that God gave them wealth to use it in a responsible way. Yes, if you get something from God, you should be responsible for it, but what if you didn't get it from God but you stole it? What would then be your responsibility? It seems rather clear that in that case you should return to the owner what you stole.

There are so many ways of stealing. Many governments steal and have stolen by causing inflation of currencies in some way. They just steal a little bit from each person. Many banks and large corporations do the same. They just take a tiny something from many. Nobody notices it. The banks' owners use their money to influence politics. They get a good name, are respected, but some or more of them may actually be thieves. Instead of discontinuing to steal they make large donations to some kind of charity. Now they are not only thieves but also falsely hailed as famous saints.

The practiced principles of the religions that dominate today's world are clearly incapable of enough judging such misdoings and setting them straight.

May 22, 2006