God wants one of his faithful followers to kill you if you aren't a believer and don't do exactly what he said. Or exactly what an illiterate, medieval, small-time merchant said He said to him through an angel no one else saw or heard. This is not historically limited to belief in any particular god. All religions have taken this basic stance at one time or another. Fortunately, most religions have come to understand that this is not acceptable. Brides who are discovered to not be virgin on their wedding night are not dragged to their father's doorstep and stoned to death. Our soldiers do not dash our enemies babies against rocks as certain ancient religious books require. No, we have, mostly, become more humane, civilized and ethical. Mostly.
But there remain in our world, many, many people who will gladly kill you for your unbeliefs, and "know" they will be divinely rewarded for so doing. Witness the killings in France by followers of Islam. "Allah ahkbar!" God is great. I kill you in the name of God. Blessings be upon me.
This is an enormous problem in today's world. There exist, in all countries now, many followers of Islam who will either be willing to kill you for their religious beliefs, and many more who will not condemn publically or work to stop these fundamentalists because they too are afraid they will be killed. For the Islamists jihadists, it's a win-win. Oppose me and I'll kill you. If I kill you for opposing me (and my God) then God will send me to heaven. And, you to hell.
I don't see any way to stop all of this unless those people are prevented from acting out their beliefs. Not likely to happen especially when they are trained young to hate everything not Islam. I have not heard or read of any solution that is likely to have a widespread and immediate impact to this world problem that does not involve a real holy war – a war to get rid of people who want to kill you for God. It's the mother of all problems.
But, I do have a few thoughts about how to cope with this on a more personal level. Fundamentally, it is my firm belief that everyone has the right to fight back. You might not win, but you don't have to go quietly. I believe, but I don't know for sure, that almost no civilians in France are allowed to carry firearms for self defense. This is, of course, true in other European countries as well as in some states in our own. Isn't is obvious now that there are people living among us who are intent on, and are planning to, murder us and our fellow humans because we don't give their religious ideas the 'respect' they claim they deserve? Think about this for a moment. If you don't believe in the same god that I do, you will surely go to hell, and, if you disprespect my god or his mouthpiece, I have the right, no, the obligation, to kill you and that is fine because god will reward me in heaven for it.
Most of us have always known that evil exists and sometimes walks among us. People intent on committing a violent act and don't care who gets hurt. Someone with a murderous grudge. A junkie looking for more money for more drugs. Sociopaths who bascially don't give a damn. The list is long. Pick up any newspaper, news magazine, see any internet news site, watch tv. This is not new. Everyone knows it exists, but most everyone doesn't really believe it will touch their lives. Until it does. Now, it is playing out on the world stage and can't be swept under the rug.
There are people in the world, living among us, who will gladly kill us because of our ideas.
Every person, everywhere, should have and insist upon the absolute right to protect oneself and others from the depredations and murderous intent of others of our species. At this point in history, the best means to do this is by having, carrying and knowing how to use a gun. Period.
Let's face it. Even if every man, woman and child on the planet had an assigned, 24 x 7 bodyguard, that bodyguard would have to carry a gun in order to be minimally effective. It takes a gun.
I can hear the arguments now: even if the French journalists had all been armed, what could they have done against those trained jihadists armed with automatic weapons? Answer: We will never know, but at least they would have been able to fight back.
What if the jihadist criminals had killed all of them anyway? If the citizenry of France had been armed, do you seriously think those murderers could have just driven away unharmed?
The gun is not evil here. Take exactly the same gun used by one of the Islamist killers, and give it, instead to a French policeman who kills the Islamist. Is the gun first evil, then good? Obviously not. It's a tool, much like a vaacum cleaner, made to do a specific job.
The basic right involved here is the right to defend oneself and fight back effectively against evil. Those who seek to remove that right will never be friends of mine. I understand that they are afraid of guns and violence, but I don't understand how they can thank me for my military service and thank their god for the armed men and women they need to protect them yet seek to deprive me of that right.
Get a gun. Learn how to use it effectively and safely. Carry a gun. Protect yourself and others and at least be able to stand up and fight when god tells his thugs to kill you for him.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment