THE PERPETUAL WAR

Dr. Xavier Sez-Llorens xsaezll@cwpanama.net @xsaezll I was preparing another topic for today. But seeing the images of a Palestinian father crying uncontrollably over the death of his two children, a mixture of sadness and anger took hold of me. The cruel scene made me hate, even more, religion. I could not share the frustration with my wife because I was giving medical lectures in Taipei and Bangkok. To ease my anxiety, I connected to twitter looking for some encouraging news. The shot backfired to me. I read a tweet from Robin Andrews, a British scientist, who wrote about the bombing in Gaza. As I identified with his thoughtful words, I spent a time of my return to home writing an article with part of his ideas, mixed with mine. In any conflict, both parties possess reasons and guilts. If one has not lived within the historical intricacies of one group or another, it is irresponsible to take side and adhere to the controversial speech of occupation or liberation. I do not like writers who consistently support the weakest, a comfortable posture with an easy applause but intellectually superfluous and often unfair. It is a barbarism to blow up a backpack full of explosives in public places, killing innocent people indiscriminately. It is the most vile of all human behaviors. The counterpart reaction of self defense, however, using a disproportionate military power, brings enormous collateral damage and many civilian casualties, despite the fact that the retaliation was directed exclusively against Hamas. Violence generates more violence and the resulting hatred spans generations. Both sides deserve their own State but their demarcation must not be based on religious considerations. Without this premise, the agreement will never be successful and lasting. I have always said that religion does more harm than good. I am not talking about the private belief of each individual, which if executed in intimacy, may have an emotional benefit. I refer to the institutionalized faith, the one that interprets biblical texts to the convenience of "privileged" intermediaries and indoctrinates childrens brains to be transformed in adults without critical thinking. On behalf of each deity, wars, antipathies and discriminations have occurred, affecting humankind deeply. History records more deaths from spiritual fanaticism than from infectious diseases. The aversion of Muslims towards Jews or Christians and viceversa is millenary. The stigmatization of women and gays by monotheisms continues intact. Pastors are not guilty of such rigid hierarchical lines. Many of them, moved by genuine humanist interests, wish wellbeing and hope for the poorest. The religious leaders are the problem. To conserve power and fortune, design tight guidelines that must be followed to gain celestial forgiveness and eternal paradise. The promotion of good values is said to be a religious quality. Big mistake. Ethics is evolving from pagan times and no particular creed can claim authorship. The Hammurabi and other previous codes represented early commandments or

constitutions" gestated as behavioral norms to control people. To ensure compliance, powerful authorities created a divine source as the authorship of those precepts. One does not have to follow any religion to know that killing, stealing, lying or disrespect others are harming misconducts tha affect the peaceful coexistence. It is more altruistic to practice these basic values without expecting anything in return (atheists) than doing so to please a deity and get an hypothetical eternal life (believers). Three centuries after the Enlightenment, a period where science and reason prevailed over superstition and dogma in Western countries, the world is still suffering from excessive ignorance and charlatanism that hijack the minds and wallets of dominated people. Dawkins said that labeling a kid as belonging to any religion is child abuse. Andrews thinks that it is immoral. I call it a dogmatic terrorism. It is like labeling children as Marxists, capitalists, republicans, liberals or racists, just because their parents taught these ideologies at home. This is how violence between Israelis and Arabs was cooked. Children are taught that some are Jews and other Muslims, that they want to exterminate each other, and that a supernatural being that dictates the fate of the universe decided they were the Gods chosen people. Resolving this conflict will not lie on military or diplomatic strategies but on educational ones. Education is the only tool to incite a bloodless revolution. Todays youth should start a phlegmatic rebellion, via social networks, to demand the abolition of all kinds of school indoctrination and to replace the subject of religion for classes of ethics, tolerance and history of faith pluralisms. Children should urge adults to leave them thinking by themselves and decide what to believe when they reach intellectual maturity. If they do nothing, they will be collaborating with the dark future of a stupid human species misnamed as rational. I dream with this academic movement. Afterwards, I can die in peace.