Arrogance and Belief.

So ISIS fighters from Cardiff have been named.  The video they feature in is very interesting to watch.  Seeing these young men so entrenched in their ideology and theology is almost impressive.  That these souls would give up aspirations, such as being future leaders and medical professionals is incredible.

They claim in the video they have ‘proof’ that God wants them to embark on this campaign.  How does one truly know the will of God?  When trying to wrap one’s mind around God, you have to look at exactly what God is.  If we boil it down to the very basics of what this deity could be, it is an omnipotent being that has universe creating power.  This being can shape space and time to its will.  Let’s stay away from before the big bang because there’s no point going down that road, as there will be no closure.

No, let’s focus on God as it is now.  The almighty power in the universe that, strangely, seemed to create the initial spark, but then left the universe to go on its merry way.

Now, to look at our relationship with this being.  Fighters, clerics, on the ground followers of religion, claim to have personal interactions with this being and that what they do either pleases or displeases this creature.

Are we to believe that a being that operates on a completely different plane of existence to us with powers to create everything cares what primate you kill, what parts of a child’s genitalia you mutilate, who you have a relationship with?  Does this not seem a little farfetched? 

The Idea of a higher power, creator figure is not beyond the realms of possibility, as in something beyond our understanding influences the way the cosmos works, but to suggest that this creator really cares about a young species of primates that are barbaric and generally unpleasant to each other does seem to stretch reason a little.

Naïve, perhaps?

To believe in a God is not the problem.  You can believe in whatever gives you hope and peace.  Whatever opiate helps you, but your personal belief should not hurt another person.  Whether it be a physical hurt, or a move that is designed to stop a person having the same rights as everyone else, it is still wrong.  Female clergy, for instance.

This idea of organised religion has become quite the fascination.  My eyes have been slowly opened over the last few years by people like Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Stephen Fry, Penn Jillette and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

As a former Catholic I have always been a little baffled by it all.  The ritual, the chanting, the burning of incense all seemed a little bit surreal.  Why would people follow the words and teachings of a church that has openly challenged reason and murdered people who hold different beliefs?   Yet the crimes of the Church are always dismissed as “of their times” or “you can’t judge by today’s standards”.

Will Hitler’s urge to rid the world of the Jews one day be looked back on with the attitude of “Well he had a point”?  The Muslim brothers and sisters of ISIS seem to think that.  Thinking of their crusade against other religions, liberal versions of their own religion and the west, do they not have an axe to grind?  Is it time for Islam’s revenge against the Christian purges of the past? 

It isn't.

What a downright ridiculous question.  It’s time to not be as arrogant to claim you have the will of God on your side.  It’s time to move on from the group chanting and mob mentality of organised religion.  If God truly needs the adoration of a species only a few hundred thousand years old, then I feel sorry for this creator.  

I look at these poor, misguided souls in the ISIS recruitment video.  I feel for their families.  These young men have the arrogance of belief within them.  It has poisoned them, as it does everything.  I wonder what Hitch would have made of it all?