{"id":167,"date":"2007-12-27T07:13:08","date_gmt":"2007-12-27T07:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2007\/12\/about-torture.html"},"modified":"2007-12-27T07:13:08","modified_gmt":"2007-12-27T07:13:08","slug":"about-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2007\/12\/about-torture.html","title":{"rendered":"About Torture"},"content":{"rendered":"

(NOTE: This weblog creates, for us all, a chance to meet at the interaction of Life and the New Spirituality. It is written by the author of <\/em>Conversations with God, the worldwide best-selling series of books. The \u201cNew Spirituality\u201d is defined by the author as \u201ca new way to experience and express our natural impulse toward the Divine without making others wrong for the way in which they are doing it.\u201d)<\/em>
\nMASS GRAVES FOUND IN IRAQ
\nA mass grave and torture chamber have been discovered in Iraq by coalition forces there. Some 26 bodies were discovered there, and a room, stained with blood, was also found, containing chains hanging from walls and ceilings, and a bed connected to an electrical system. The death chamber was located in an area believed to be a base for al Qaeda terrorists operating in Iraq.
\nWhen I hear about such things, I am, as we all are, repulsed. The thought that any human being could deliberately and slowly torture another human being is beyond my ability to comprehend. Causing another person to die by such means is unimaginable by me. And yet, we know that this happens in our world — and it may not always be the “bad guys” who are doing it…
\nSuch behaviors could only be exhibited by a race of beings believing absolutely in the separation of all things. Conversations with God says that most of the world\u2019s people adhere to a Separation Theology. I have named the God of this theology Iohayot<\/em>. That is an acronym for I\u2019m Over Here And You\u2019re Over There.
\nThis is as valid a name as any of the others that humanity has come up with, including Allah, Brahmin, God, Jehovah, Krishna, or Yahweh, and it\u2019s far more descriptive of the actual concept of God held by most humans. Religion is not noted for producing widespread agreement among people, yet whatever else the fervently religious may disagree on, most concur that God says: \u201cI\u2019m Over Here And You\u2019re Over There.\u201d
\nGod then adds, \u201cYou may come over here if you wish, but there are certain things that you have to do.\u201d God then gives us the list of those things. That list has been read by many people in many different ways, and those different ways are sometimes called religions.
\nThere is only One List, each of our religions assert, and we must not be confused into thinking that there are many, nor so perplexed by the False Lists put out by others that we pick the wrong one.
\nThis description of human theologies is simplistic in the extreme, yet it is not that far from being an accurate, if very basic, summary of our beliefs. And these beliefs are killing us.
\nSeparation Theology\u2014worship of the God Iohayot<\/em>\u2014could, if it continues much longer on our planet, bring an end to life as we know it on the earth. It has already begun to do so.
\nMany people believe that this is because, while God is, indeed, \u201cover there\u201d and we are \u201cover here,\u201d God has to sometimes come \u201cover here\u201d to teach us a lesson. And so God comes down to punish us for our sins, make us pay for our offenses, or do whatever else is necessary to reestablish the natural order of things and bring Right into proper balance with that which is Not Right.
\nUnder this philosophy the AIDS epidemic, the increasing violence on the earth, the degradation of our social systems, the erosion and destruction of our collective morals, the pestilence and rampant poverty afflicting millions, are all signs of God\u2019s anger, punishments from on high brought on by humanity\u2019s increasingly evil behavior.
\nThis belief in a God who is \u201cover there\u201d and who wants and needs or desires or demands something from those of us \u201cover here\u201d is what allows humans to grant themselves the moral authority to inflict punishments of their own upon those who ignore God\u2019s Word and disobey God\u2019s Commandments. We imagine and understand and declare ourselves to be acting in God\u2019s name as we throw the switch on the electric chair, or throw people behind bars for 20 years, or throw our weight around in whatever other way we have bestowed it upon ourselves to do in retribution for the sins that others have committed.
\nThis idea is what allows humans to fly airplanes into buildings, killing thousands of innocent civilians all the while shouting, \u201cAllah is great!\u201d It is what allows humans to preemptively strike a nation that they imagine is going to strike them if they don\u2019t do it first, killing thousands of innocent civilians with bombs paid for by coins on which it is written, \u201cIn God We Trust.\u201d
\nIf we thought we were doing these things to God, we would, of course, never do them. Yet there is nothing could make us think that we are doing these things to God except the thought that We And God Are One, and that is a thought a majority of us have summarily rejected.
\nSeparation Theology produces a Separation Cosmology. That is, a cosmological way of looking at all of Life which holds that everything is separate from everything else. Separation Cosmology produces a Separation Sociology. That is, a way of socializing the human species that separates every person from every other person by declaring their interests to be separate. Separation Sociology produces a Separation Pathology. That is, pathological behaviors of self-destruction\/
\nThis is exactly what we are seeing on the earth today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(NOTE: This weblog creates, for us all, a chance to meet at the interaction of Life and the New Spirituality. It is written by the author of Conversations with God, the worldwide best-selling series of books. 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