How Can We Heal Religious Divisions?

As we begin 2009, our world is not a peaceful place. There is a tenuous ceasefire in Gaza, which could fall apart at any time. India and Pakistan have heightened alerts on their border, and there is continued violence in Afghanistan. Mercifully, Iraq seems less violent but a suicide bomber killed dozens only a few weeks ago. There are simmering conflicts in Africa, from Darfur in the north to Somalia in the east.

All of these conflicts represent struggles for political power. Yet, there is also a religious element. India is an overwhelmingly Hindu country; Pakistan is overwhelmingly Muslim. Israel is a Jewish country; the residents of Gaza are mostly Muslim. Iraq is torn by a struggle between two groups of Muslims, Sunnis and Shiites. Religious differences exacerbate political differences because they provide a basis for one group to see a rival group as fundamentally inferior. Consider this recent quote from an Egyptian cleric railing at Jews in protesting Israel’s invasion of Gaza: “Muslim brothers, God has inflicted the Muslim nation with a people whom God has become angry at and whom he cursed so he made monkeys and pigs out of them. They killed prophets and messengers and sowed corruption on Earth. They are the most evil on Earth.”

In the last chapter of The Uncertain Believer I imagine a world in which humanity shares a common conception of God. I am not so naïve as to think that will happen soon, certainly not in my lifetime. However, it is not pure fantasy to think that future generations might come to bridge their religious differences. We would continue to have profound differences over many things, but at least one group would not claim that God is on its side.

To begin to close the religious fault lines that divide us, we have to see history in a different way. In particular, we need to stop thinking of our ancestors as having arrived at the truth about the nature of the world. Doing so traps us into replaying ancient conflicts that were often based on superstition and irrational biases. Our ancestors tried to understand the world as well as they could based on the knowledge they had, and there is much wisdom we can draw from ancient sources, including the Bible, the Qur'an, classic Greek plays, and so on. But looking to ancient texts to explain the fundamental nature of the universe is equivalent to relying on scientific textbooks that are a thousand years out of date. Even Isaac Newton, perhaps the greatest scientist in history, had only a limited ability to understand the nature of matter. He knew nothing of subatomic particles or black holes. He could not conceive of how the universe could be the way it is without a divine, all-powerful creator who set the universe in motion.

It is possible to start now to overcome the religious conflicts that divide us. One of the essential requirements is to think for ourselves about the nature of God and the universe, rather than to accept without question the beliefs of our ancient ancestors. I have no illusions that the world will stop fighting wars that are at least partly religious any time soon. But there is value is thinking about what such a day might be like.