A poignant remark about the 13th November killings
by Muslim terrorists, in which 129 French civilian people lost their lives, was
that it was “a savage act devoid of humanity.” It is rightly so. But what one
wants to know is why do they do it? The obvious answer is in the name of
religion. Is that really so? It is worth pondering.
It is often said that the killings sponsored in the name of
religion are much more than the secular or non-religious killings in this
world, especially keeping Christianity in mind. This accusation is one major
reason why the Western people lost their faith in Christianity and Christ,
since it was accused to have sponsored violent killings of innocent people.
This led me to analyze killings both by religious and
non-religious wars or events, especially so, after visiting Cambodia and
learning about the mass killings engineered there not by religious people, but
by Communists, who do not believe in any religion.
Let’s first take the casualties of religious wars sponsored
mainly by Christians.
30 years war, Holy Roman Empire 1618-1648
Protestants vs Catholics 3
m French war of religion, France
1562-1598 -do- 2m
Crusades, Europe 1095-1291 Christians vs Muslims 1m
Spanish Inquisition 1478-1834 Christians vs Christians 350,000
Witch hunts
1400-1800 -do - 100,000
The major wars sponsored by Christians over the last 4-6
centuries add up only to six and a half millions. Not that this could be
justified, but it pales into insignificance when we consider other killings. So
why blame it all on Christianity, and why be angry with Christ?
Turning to the secular wars, we have these following figures.
French Revolution, France, Europe 1789-1799 (Napoleon) 3-4m
First World War,
1914-1918
17m
Second World War
1939-1945
56m
The secular, worldwide wars took much more lives than the
Christian sponsored religious wars, totaling almost 76-77 millions. Then again
someone might say Hitler, who started the Second World War, a German and a
European, was a Christian. Nothing can be far from truth. Hitler was an atheist
and did not believe that there is a God, much less follow one. Hitler was
influenced directly by philosophers that Germany had produced like Nietzsche.
Nietzsche (1844 – 1900), to briefly narrate, argued against
Christianity, which he thought had emasculated people, by its teachings,
especially on forgiveness and obedience. He wanted people to strive hard to
become supermen and defy their fate. He famously said ‘God is dead,’ and
recommended the void left by God to be filled with philosophy and art, in short,
culture. He encouraged people to own up their envy and not suppress it, but use
it to become what we envied in the other person – realize our full potential.
No wonder Hitler emerged from the same soil, albeit 100 years later, as a man who
wanted to be a ‘superman,’ and unleashed terror on the whole world.
Be that as it may, the twentieth century, mass killings by
Communist comrades and their totalitarian regimes, steal the prize.
Stalin,
Russia Great Purge, 1936-1938 20-50
million dead
Mao Zedong, China The Great Leap Forward, 1958-1961
Cultural Revolution,
1966-1976 60-70 m
Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge
Cambodia ,
1975-1979 2.5 m
Analyzing the wholesale massacre of their own people, amounting
to 105-122.5 million, by the Communists, the main reason seems to be, to be in
power and exterminate anyone who could be a threat to his power and position in
the regime. Stalin’s purges were mainly to remove any opposition to his
leadership from within the party and the party cadres. It is after all power
gone to their heads that made them heartless and ruthless. Of course they
believed in no God, and so no one to give account to. They were free to run the
show.
Coming to Islam, it is a story of its own. From the death of
Prophet Mohammed in 632 AD to the next 1400 years or so, Muslims killed anyone
who opposed them and their religion and had killed about 270 million people,
including Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and so on. Here again the main motive
is to world-wide domination as a people and not submit to any other culture,
all fought of course, in the name of religion, Islam. It is political ambition,
masquerading as religion.
Comparisons apart, are there any meanings in such killings?
Why do they do it? Is there any method to this madness?
Well, for one, power and unopposed power, reigned supreme in
such mass killings. Such Communists showed a method in their madness. In their
eagerness to bring in revolution they pushed people like cattle, from cities to
rural areas, to work like machines. They were not human beings created in the
image of God, as Christians believe, but were inanimate pawns in their game of their
power.
They were ruthless, since there was no fear of God. Stalin
said let half of the population die, at least the other half can live in better
conditions. Pol Pot’s theory was, there were no loss if the people died and no
gain if they remained alive. It was ruthless suppression of human nature and
humanity. The raw claws of evil inside the fallen man came to the fore.
Systematically learning was discouraged. Schools were closed
both by Mao and Pol Pot. They withdrew all the children from high schools and
colleges and used them as instruments to kill their own teachers and then their
parents. These teenagers were like clean slates on which these leaders could
write what they wanted them to do. Not unlike the Islamic terrorist brain washing
the youth of today.
Next, they eschew private property, exterminate rich peasants
and traders, and even abolish money and trade from the country as Pol Pot did,
to do away with any personal ambition that human beings might have. The crux is
people are not treated as human beings but as worms, as non-living objects to
satisfy and fulfill the dreams of the leaders.
They relentlessly seek to destroy the roots of a culture, the
family, God and religion, and knowledge through teachers and schools. In so
doing these leaders assume the role of god. When a fallen man elevates himself
to the heights of a god, we know what happens, his evil nature comes out and
the world suffers. That is what happened under a Hitler, a Stalin, a Mao or a Pol
Pot. Bible points out that in the end of times, another such an evil person
will raise himself to be god and bring havoc on earth.
Is there a remedy? What could be done to combat these base
natures of these leaders?
There is just one answer to all the fallen nature of our
leaders and the people, that is, Christ. Forget what Christianity did to its
people, because when the State joins hands with religion, people suffer
terrible suppression. That is what happened in Europe in the middle ages and
the pre-modern era. But the answer is not in throwing the baby with the
bathtub. Throw away the dirty water, but keep the baby. That baby is no
ordinary baby; he is the Savior of the world, come to earth as a baby.
The world needs a Savior; on our own, we will not be able to
bring Utopia to the world. With the fallen nature of human beings that is next
to impossible. The only light at the end of the tunnel is Jesus Christ, the Savior
of mankind, today and forever. The earlier we realize this and seek His face,
it is better for us and for the world.
Those who have thrown away Christ and his Christianity need
to think; have they done the right thing? Or have they just given place to all
other phony religions in the place of Christianity, which go by the names Atheism,
Scientology, New Age Spirituality, even Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Isn’t
that what has happened to the Western civilization? They have rejected
Christianity and now are flooded with all other religions, vying with one
another, to capture and occupy the place vacated by Christianity. We need to
think.
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