The burning of a Holy Book, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

So this fanatic preacher burns a copy of the Qur’an. A despicable act to be sure, an act of hatred and intolerance, but all he really did was burn a book. We don’t even know if it was an actual copy of the Qur’an. For all we know it could have been a copy of a novel he hated. Obviously, this man hates many things.

On the other side of the world, in Afghanistan, this act spawns more acts of hatred, intolerance, and even violence, as a mob of religious fanatics murders innocent people in protest. This is much worse than just burning a collection of printed pages bound into one volume. This is such a savage act and hard to imagine, much less accept. There has to be something wrong with religious leaders who teach their followers such hatred of people of other faiths.

History is full of acts of violence committed by religious fanatics. We’ve had wars fought over religion, women accused of being witches and burnt at the stake by the Church, men tortured and thrown into prison because of their beliefs, and so forth.

Nobody has a direct line to God, if in fact there is one, no matter what the religious leaders preach. The religious books were written centuries ago by men claiming to be inspired by God. Who says what they wrote is the truth? Maybe they made it all up? Stories spawned by their fertile imagination. I’m a writer. I spin tales of the imagination. Some people may not like what I write, might even condemn me for it, because they believe it is something you shouldn’t write. That’s okay, it is their right, and it doesn’t bother me. I don’t hate them for it.

I won’t say what the so-called Holy Books teach are lies. I would never make such a claim or accusation, because I don’t know the real truth. I am not an Atheist; I was raised as a Christian, but that doesn’t mean I have to believe everything I was taught without question. Nobody knows the truth. Every religious group claims what they believe is the right religion, the only one. Everyone else is wrong and has to be hated, shunned, or outright killed. That to me is the greatest sin and crime. It is not something civilized people do. It is barbaric and ignorant, and it belongs to the history and growth of the human race.

What we have to teach in our Schools, Churches, Temples, Synagogues, Mosques, and whatever we call our places of worship is tolerance and love for our fellow human beings, no matter what they believe or look like. After all, we have to share this planet with each other; there is nowhere else to go. We should concentrate on making it a better world to live in, a world with clean air and water, a place where people don’t go hungry and have a place to sleep in peace, a world without crime and violence. I know it is a dream but it is possible. We just have to work at it.