circle arguments

People tend to get caught up in blame, spinning around pointlessly. One such argument I read on line went back and forth, name calling and deriding the others about who killed more people on earth, religious people or atheists. Anyway, here is my response to that mind-numbing exchange:

Religious zealots, one could argue, are responsible for many deaths, whether it is more or less than atheistic regimes doesn't really matter, does it? You could site the Spanish Inquisition, ALL the colonization of countries in the name of God and the King/Queen (Africa, India, South America...), The slave trade, The wiping out of all indigenous tribes who remain uncounted in the Americas before, during, and after the wave of "civilization" to hit the continent. Zionist Christians and Jews are responsible for countless Arab deaths throughout the Middle East.

To quibble about who killed more people on earth in wars and such is like two toads trying to decide who has the most warts! It doesn't matter! You're a toad!

Isn't the point that the policies generated under a belief system that promotes the annihilation of one group of people over another, or that one group is better than another, or they deserve a certain part of the world over others is fatally flawed?

We live on a planet that deserves our unrestrained awe. The more science reveals about the nature of the universe that we are privileged to be a part of for such a brief time, the more it is obvious we cannot assume any one religion is more "real" than another. Most religions teach to revere life, and human life above all. But unfortunately, most believers in these religions haven't enough faith to follow through with the "love your enemies" aspect of the lessons. Forgiveness and Sharing are forgotten to the fear of "being had" or not having enough.

This leads to the "othering" of evil. "It's not me that's evil, it's the other guy!" That way you can justify you malevolence and rationalize your greed. Then you just get this big "piling on" of evil deeds. Really Old Testament stuff; eye for and eye, etc.

What really should be addressed here is not which group has done the most damage to the world to date, but which group is going to lead the way in changing the cycle of murder and destruction. Which group will lead the way in making the fact available to everyone's conscious and subconscious mind, that this world (earth) is finite, this world is a home that we share, and how are we going to exploit its gifts without destroying it and exploiting a large percentage of its inhabitants, human, plant, and animal?

Who will lead the way? Will it be atheists? Will it be Muslims, Jews, Christians, Wiccans? How about a group that encompasses all these and more? A group motivated by and based on knowledge of a finite biosphere and an understanding of the need to conserve the resources that we exploit and destroy in that biosphere.

Really, what does it matter who killed more people? Both sides are guilty. There is no "degree" to sin; sin is sin, a murderer is a murderer. A shot at redemption may be our only hope in this dismal life. That redemption lies in the promise we bring individually to be better human beings everyday. Better to our planet home, better to our fellow humans who share the planet, better to our families who share our DNA, better to our children and spouses.