Secret Knowledge: Arena of Faith Part I

By Adam Carlson

A Brief History of Man’s Search for God

Ever since man became aware of his surroundings he has struggled to make sense of what he cannot explain. He looks high and low and attributes these unexplained phenomenons to unseen, higher powers.

During the infancy of the human race, he creates a paradigm of religious thought centered on the belief that everything he could see, feel, or touch contained a spirit-force tying it to all others like it. These spirits could be angered, appeased, or in other ways manipulated by ceremonial rites or actions. Shaman of various importance and potency were the ones who were expected to interpret the signs of nature for the common man and if they were able, intervene where necessary. Scholars refer to this religious archetype as Animism, a term that encompasses the religious belief systems of such peoples as the Druids, most Native Americans, and even modern day practitioners of Wicca.

During the formative years of man, his beliefs evolve and become more complex as society grows out of the hunter/gatherer stage and develops technology for farming, architecture, defense and war. It is here that, out of the cradle of civilization, we see the emergence of theistic thought. Polytheism becomes the standard explanation for the unknown and sometimes contradictory forces of nature and fate. Springing up in Northern Africa, India and the Greek Isles, this religious archetype attributes different aspects of the natural world and its functions as well as different aspects of human nature to different deities who make up a pantheon of gods. These gods are believed to reside in places set apart from the world of man like Mt. Olympus, the heavens, or the Egyptian underworld known as Duat. Furthermore they are also believed to exist within certain forces of nature such as the sun, specific bodies of water, or even within the earth itself. These gods also have free reign to interact or interfere with man and his endeavors.

From 9/11 to Iraq, is God on our side?

By Nina Kilbride

From the eerie Christ-like Abu Ghraib silhouette on the cover to the last paragraph, Faith Based War: From 9/11 to Catastrophic Success in Iraq is provocative. The category listing of “Religion and Violence” sounds sexy to me. And it is.

Faith-Based War’s thesis is that citizen ignorance of American geopolitical actions plus an irrational faith in U.S. as the chosen nation equals a “blind spot” that sends us reeling when things like 9/11 happen to us, the good guys. This blind spot allows citizen complicity in unreasonable and sometimes atrocious acts.

"Faith-Based War: From 9/11 to Catastrophic Success in Iraq," by T. Walter Herbert; 176 pages, 2009 Equinox Publishing, London

Americans are shocked at international aggression against U.S. interests because we believe our national religion as expressed by president George W. Bush on Sept. 20, 2001: “Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.”

We all know which side God is on, right? Continued triumph of white Christians reinforced Americans’ delusion that we are God’s chosen.

Author T. Walter Herbert shows us where President Bush’s words echo through American history, justifying bloodthirsty expansion from 1630 until the present, from Massachusetts Bay settlers slaughtering Pequots for arable land to modern bumper stickers reading “What’s Our Oil Doing Underneath Their Sand?”

Time and again, American Christian warriors almost lovingly refer to their slaughter of nonbelieving men, women and children as a “Sacrifice to God.” Certainly God would not let people suffer if it were undeserved. This sacrifice must have been necessary and proper, else why would God keep bringing American Christians triumph?

These continued triumphs, along with “[r]eligious authoritarians (offering comfort) by pretending to certainties they do not possess” keep an America ignorant of its own history in thrall. Our history is full of these examples, as Herbert details, from genocide in the name of Manifest Destiny to Dirty Harry as avenging angel.