Lies vs. Hate
By Ali Sina
The bitter experience of the Islamic
revolution in Iran has made many wary of Islam in particular and of all
religions in general. Some freethinkers opine that all religions must be
eradicated completely to avoid repeating the same errors that were committed
under Islam.
In the Internet based discussion
board of Jebhe Melli (The Democratic National Front of Iran) in a debate between
a secularist and a respected member of a religious minority the secularist
argued that lies are as dangerous and evil as hate and he suggested that we
should confront and expose the beliefs that are not based on the truth. The
writer reasoned:
"Dear
friend, … I hope that after all we can agree upon a few points here; the
centrality and importance of truthfulness, that lies and deceptions, if not more
dangerous and evil, are at least as evil as hatred and should be strongly
exposed, confronted, and condemned...."
I decided to jump in and add my two
cents with the following comments:
At the first sight it seems that the
above statement is true, i.e. "lies are at least as evil and dangerous as
hatred and consequently should be strongly exposed, confronted and
condemned". But this blanket condemnation of lies presents a
technical difficulty. The problem is that it assumes that the truth is something
that everyone can understand and anyone deviating from it is lying. However this
is not the case. People have different perceptions of the Truth. What to one may
look as Truth, it may not to others. Our understanding of the Truth depends on
our perceptions, and our perceptions are based on our limitations, social and
cultural upbringings, our intellectual capacity and other conditionings.
Truth is not a defined and a finite
concept that anyone can understand. We all see part of the Truth and none of us
can claim exclusivity to it. Truth is infinite and is multi-faceted. Take the
example of the Earth. You can stand in any place on the surface of the Earth and
get a glimpse of it. But you cannot see all of it. Two observers standing in
deferent vantage points see different things. When they describe what they see,
neither one of them is lying. They tell you the truth of what they see and what
they see is different.
I recall an old story that is
humorous as well as educational that I believe explains the nature of the truth
and can shed some light on this concept. Two Jews argued about a religious
matter. One of them went to the rabbi and explained his views. The rabbi
listened attentively and nodded his head saying: “Yes, you are right my
son”. He went home happily. Then the second one paid him a visit and explained
to him his understanding. The rabbi listened to him too and said: “You are
right my son”. Later on when his wife catches him alone, she objected: “how
can it be that both these men are right when they believe in different
things?”, The rabbi chafed his chin and responded: “yes my dear YOU are
right”.
The good rabbi was not pulling
anyone’s legs. He was telling the truth and he was right. What he knew, and
what we must learn from him, is that each person sees the truth according to his
understanding and is right from his point of view. And since all points of views
are relative, no one is right or wrong in absolute terms.
There was a time that I was searching
after the truth. There was a time that I thought that truth is accessible and
one can reach it if one looks for it. But not anymore! Truth is not
something you can grasp in its entirety. All what you can attain is a partial
truth. If truth can be compared to the world, the best way to see the truth is
to be a traveler. Go from one place to another, listen to everyone and from each
person learn something. The more you travel, the more people you meet, the more
things you see, your understanding of The truth expands. You never see all the
truth but you see more of it. Therefore knowing that truth is unattainable and
that it is relative, I give less weight to the truth and more to the good.
The truth may be relative and may vary from one person to another, but good is
always good.
The Differences of opinions that to
some may seem lies do not hurt us. The belief is Santa Clause is a lie. Is it
“more dangerous and evil than hate”? To believe that cows are sacred is a
lie. Does it hurt anyone? The belief in Zartosht and Baha’u’llah as
messengers of God, according to the understanding of those who don’t believe
that God sends messengers is also not true. But is there anything harmful in
these beliefs?
The danger of imposing one's truth on
others, apart from its logical absurdity is also ethically wrong. It is
reminiscent of the inquisitions, where the majority would assault the minority,
whether physically or intellectually, to straighten their thoughts and impose
their version of the truth. I find the statements like "Lies if
not more dangerous and evil, are at least as evil as hatred and should be
strongly exposed, confronted, and condemned...." extremely
disturbing. How are we going to achieve this? Are we going to inaugurate a new
era of intellectual witch hunt? Should we deny others to have the freedom to
believe in whatever they choose to believe with respect without being constantly
harassed by intellectual crusaders?
Not everyone can live happily without
a personal god. There are many good and intelligent people who still need to
believe in a heavenly father. That need is real, even when the father is not. You
may call it a crutch but to take away that crutch is cruelty. I do not believe
in a personal god and therefore according to my understanding, which is by no
means infallible, God is a lie. Should I fight with everyone who believes in
God? What if they believe that their god has told them to speak good, to think
good and to do good like Zoroastrians do? What if they believe that their god
wants them to abolish the prejudices, love all humankind; establish equality
between men and women and foster unity between all the races, nationalities, and
religions like Baha’is do? Is there anything inherently wrong, evil and
dangerous in these beliefs? Isn’t it better to be misguided and do good than
be "guided" and do evil?
From my perspective religions are
wrong, but who said my perspective is the only right perspective?
Tolerance means also tolerating people’s beliefs. I don’t say that
beliefs and ideologies are sacred and you should not criticize any belief least
its followers are offended. On the contrary I believe beliefs are there to be
probed, scrutinized, criticized and if found hollow, discarded. PEOPLE are
sacred; beliefs are not! However, this does not license me to lash out at
everyone and try to disprove the beliefs of all those whose thinking differs
from mine. Who said my beliefs are right? Of course I think that they are or I
would not have them, but doesn’t everyone else think the same way? What good
does it make if you and I constantly fight over who is right and who is not? The
truth is that neither one of us has the truth. And that is the truth.
The history of humankind is written
with the blood of people who fought for the Truth. Yet when we look back, we see
no trace for the Truth they fought for and died for.
“Forgotten
lie the martyrs in their dusty catacombs
And the faiths, for which they died, are cold and dead.”
(Margaret A Murray in The Genesis of Religion)
Truth
is relative. No truth is completely true. The ancient Chinese when drawing the
symbol of yin and yang, placed a dot of white in the core of the black and a dot
of black in the heart of the white to say: nothing is absolute; everything is
relative. No black is completely black and no white is completely white. Truth
is a lighter gray and lies are darker ones. There is no definite line dividing
them. All lies are partially true and all truths are partially false. Some lies
are harmless and some are amusing. But hate is a different story.
Hate
of the people for their color of skin or belief is odious. It is evil and
dangerous. Hate is not lack of love but a powerful force of malevolence. Lies do
not harm us, hates do. Lies do not kill us, hates do. We cannot compare hate
with lie. As I said above, some perceived lies are not lies at all but different
viewpoints. The person who in your view is telling a lie may even be convinced
that s/he is telling the truth. But there is no excuse for hate.
Hate invokes violence. It is an intense feeling of aversion.
To
fight the lies you have to know the truth. But who knows the truth and who is
the one to decide? Your truth and mine may be completely different. Who should
be the teacher and who the student? Which truth is the right truth?
Truth
may be one but the perceived truths are many. It may be as numerous as the number
of alive people on Earth. Hate is also one. It may show its ugly face
differently and may have different names. Hate is hate and in all its forms and
manifestations it is destructive and evil.
There is more harm in trying to be the crusader
of the truth than let the spread of lies. Lies that are harmless will die on
their own without our help. All you have to do is to tell your version of the
truth. This is the age of information and old age fallacies
are crumbling one after the other. Knowledge is stronger than ignorance and
truth is more powerful than lies. Fighting for the truth will only feed
fanaticism and increase rivalry.
It
is futile to pick fights with every person whose thinking differs from us.
Actually it is more than futile—it is counterproductive and dangerous.
Practically every other person on this planet thinks differently from you or me.
Are we going to fight with all of them and correct everybody’s thinking? We
have to understand that none of us is the bearer of the standard of the Truth
and it is okay if other’s beliefs do not match ours. Our job is not to find
faults with the beliefs of everyone we come across. Our job is to be the
instrument of unity and love among the people of the world. Humanity is
diverse and unity of humanity cannot be achieved without diversity. Diversity of
races, diversity of thoughts and diversity of beliefs are what enrich the world
of humanity.
However,
doctrines and beliefs that promote hate are different stories. We should oppose
them and we should eliminate them, not because they are false but because thy
are dangerous. Nazism and Islam are doctrines that promote hate. It is a mistake
not to confront them. We should not fight against Islam because it is a false
doctrine. We should fight against it because it is threatening the peace and
security of the world. The teachings of Islam are teachings of hate. We cannot
stand by and let this hate consume everything in its path, ruin lives and kill
people. Of course the Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects the right
to believe even if that belief advocates hate. But this does not mean we should
sit silent and not confront hate mongering beliefs. It is a moral obligation of every
human being who cares about human liberties to speak out and condemn doctrines
that advocate hate. Remaining silent in the face of tyranny is condoning it.
I
do not acknowledge anybody as a messenger of God. In fact I do not believe in a
personal god that thinks, cares and sends messengers. This is an absurdity. But
I will stand along with those who want to worship a god and have a religion. I
don’t care about the truthfulness of the beliefs of the people, but rather
about their actions and what they teach. In a free world people must be free to
believe in any religion they choose, worship any god they like and pray at any
altar they prefer. Humanity has lived with lies happily since its early
beginning. It was the hate that has embittered its living not those sweet-little
lies. If
we want to fight lies it is better to start fighting the lies of our own beliefs
than decry the lies that someone else hold so dear and cherish so much. This
aggressive attitude that "I have the truth and you better accept my truth or else"
is evil. it is something that is introduced by the Semitic religions and
Muhammad banked on it to impose his religion on others. Unfortunately after
thousands of years of religious indoctrination, we are conditioned to think in
the absolute truth and believe there is ONE right way that is the only way and
those who do not agree with it are liars and must be corrected, fought against
or eliminated. Even the secular doctrines that we invent, like communism,
fascism, and nazism are imbued with this religious spirit of self righteousness.
There
is no such thing at all. No way is the only right way. Acceptance of other
people and tolerance of their beliefs is the right way. The truth is not in what
we believe but in how we live. It is how we interact with people of other creeds
that makes us right or wrong. We should not fight the religions that believe in
a god or gods but those creeds that advocate hate, that order killing those
who disagree with them, and discourage unity of human kind. A quick review of
the teaching of Quran and the life of its author shows clearly that Islam is
such religion and therefore it is an obstacle to the peace and brotherhood of
humankind.
March
2001
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