Judgment on Genocide

We spell the Holocaust with a capital “H” because it represents the single most devastating example of genocide in history. It was not “a’ holocaust, but “THE” Holocaust, because millions of innocent people were exterminated for their belief in God. At the command of the German government, millions of Jews were systematically annihilated. That’s in addition to the murder of millions of additional “undesirables” (gypsies, homosexuals, political prisoners, Russian prisoners, criminals, etc.). The German government used these innocent people as scapegoats in order to distract the citizens of Europe from the military conquest that was already underway.

Consider only the plight of European Jews during the period called the “Shoah” (the Holocaust), from 1933 until the end of World War II in 1945). The vast majority of these Jews were not given a quick death. They were not hung or shot to death. They were not given an injection to speed their way into a painless death. They were exterminated, like annoying insects. They were gassed to death, because that was the most efficient way to dispose of six million men, women and children – who happened to be Jewish.

Because of the way they praised God; six million innocent people were murdered. Women, the elderly, the sick, the frail and children were often the first into the gas chambers. Men and hardy women were kept barely alive for their value as forced labor. Those able to work were employed as slaves for the benefit of the military and German industrialists. Some of those German companies exist today, albeit with different names. Some still have the same name. When there was no more work, they too were murdered.

My mother experienced brutal anti-Semitism as a child in Russia. I heard many stories about the brutal Cossacks, who persecuted Jews in the towns and villages of the Ukraine. My mother and her sisters barely survived, and then flourished in America. However, most of her remaining family perished in the Holocaust. So, genocide is close to my heart. I hold it for eternity, as a cumbersome stone attached to my soul. It is a burden of remarkable proportions. My ancestors cry out for justice. They want you to know what happened to them and their children. But, I cannot tell this story without revealing the Holocaust in every possible way. It is a terrible and beautiful story, filled with heroes and villains.

Why would anyone want to think about the Holocaust today, particularly when they could listen to their iPod or tune out the poignant world with movies, laptops and television? Yet, the death of six million innocent people MUST be told. If not, there would be nothing to prevent more genocide, and then more after that! Everyone must hear this tragedy. Otherwise, our progeny might embrace the worst of human nature.

This does not demean the importance of other Holocausts. Those innocent people who were murdered in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur were just as blameless. When will society stop fearing those who are dissimilar? When will we learn to value the differences among us, rather than fear them? When will we stop ostracizing people because of their religion, race or ethnic heritage? When will governments and individuals stop using minorities as scapegoats? After all, this is the 21st century! We’re better than that. We must be better than that.

I appreciate books that offer a frank, emotional examination of morality. Humans are not good or bad, but good and bad. We surround ourselves with romance and comedy, playing to the healthier parts of our emotional identity. Yet, repugnance, despair and obscurity exist within human nature. We learn nothing about ourselves if we do not examine the dark side of our psyche.

I explored how humans behaved during the most brutal and horrendous genocide in history. For three years, I researched the Holocaust on a daily basis. If any benefit can come from the Shoah (Holocaust), it is that we can examine and learn from the farthest extent of human depravity. We can measure its immorality, degeneracy and wickedness. Yet, humans are complex beings. There is a great deal more to our nature than the ubiquitous battleground of virtue versus malevolence. We are not one or the other, but a combination of both. We are beautiful and ugly, soothing and terrifying, brutal and caring, kind and iniquitous; we love and we despise.

Deep within the fear and panic of the Holocaust were immensely critical decisions about ethical behavior and our concept of morality. Unlike animals, humans are governed by principles, ethical beliefs and the power of veracity. We are not clouded by delusions of integrity, but governed by them. Holocaust victims and survivors provide us with the human response to terror. Innocent people, just like you and me, were reduced to distasteful objects, used for slave labor and then annihilated. The German government used propaganda to teach all of Europe that Jews were “vermin.” An entire generation of Germans was taught that Jews were dangerous and should be exterminated. Unfortunately, many Europeans were all too eager to agree with this propaganda. They happily participated in rounding up the Jewish families (Einsatzgruppen) and turning them over to the SS, who placed them in concentration camps. Almost none of the Jews survived, including women and children.

At the same time, despite their enslavement in ghettos and concentration camps, the Jews of Europe experienced the alluring beauty of passionate young love and the driving power of religious devotion. After all, they were still human beings. Being incarcerated in a concentration camp did not prevent Jewish victims from experiencing the world of normal emotions. Instead, it added a nightmarish dosage of terror, horror and fear. Our lives are complex – even within the garish trap of the Holocaust. Not all imprisoned Jews were innocent victims. Not all Germans were rabid anti-Semites, bent upon the destruction of the Jewish “race.” Life was and is far more complex.

In reality, the world is seldom seen in black and white, or even shades of gray – especially during the Holocaust. In the midst of terrible, indescribable anguish, beauty existed. Within beauty, despair existed. And, while many Jews in the abyss of the Holocaust worshiped God, some condemned God. While it might be easy to claim that God works in mysterious ways, how is one to focus such conviction when the veneer of all that is good in life has been stripped away? How does one continue to love a God who allows the murder of every innocent loved one, a deity who allows blameless people and children to be starved, beaten, tortured, denigrated, disfigured and emotionally destroyed? Could the Shoah have been the ultimate test of faith?

Holocaust survivors lost everything, but perhaps somehow gained something as well. Certainly an honest examination of the Holocaust must reveal torturous brutality and death. Most Holocaust survivors lost all of their loved ones. The facade of life’s beauty was stripped away, revealing an incomprehensible abyss of revulsion. Yet here, in the bowels of horror, the Jews of the Holocaust hit a wall and continued to run. Despite the onslaught of evil, in the face of certain death, these Jews fabricated a make-believe world for their children. Deep within the ghastly concentration camps of Nazi Germany, the Jews of Europe continued to practice their religion, to teach their children and to love one another. Here, among the gas chambers and crematoria, one can feel hope for the survival of the human spirit. Those singular individuals who maintained their Jewish identity in the Holocaust rise like a fabulous phoenix, from the ashes of annihilation.

Those poor souls trapped within the terror of the Holocaust were faced with the most perfidious forces. Deceit, brutality, cruelty, sickness, starvation and the death of loved-ones were the daily companions of victims of the Shoah. Yet, in the midst of utter despair, there was life, love, passion, desire, religious fervor and the excitement known only to children. Even in such hopeless desolation, there was love of God, infatuation, romance, passion and longing for all of the things that humans crave. Jews fabricated their ethnicity within the drumbeat of the slow, steady march to the gas chambers. They refused to allow the fabric of Jewish society be torn by relocation and the threat of demise. They created schools, orchestras, athletic events, synagogue and prayer, weddings and funerals, dances and theatre, study groups and debates; to every hellhole the Jews were sent; they took their Jewish lifestyle and values with them. Rather than give in to the Nazis, Jews trapped within ghettos and concentration camps courageously maintained their culture. Religious holidays were observed as though it was just another ordinary year. Even when it was forbidden to observe the rituals of Judaism, Holocaust victims found a way to pray and to perform the duties of a Jew. Some of the most ardent examples of constructive human nature can be found in these terrifying Holocaust moments.

Hidden from the SS, ghetto and concentration camp Jews observed all of the required covenants and rituals, including prayer services on the Sabbath and during the major holidays, marriage ceremonies, burials and circumcisions. Along the sinister, terrifying, relentless path to the gas chambers of Nazi-occupied Europe, Jews lived, loved, learned and died, behaving as though their lives would continue unabated. In their darkest moments, the Jews of the Shoah fabricated a “normal” life for their progeny. Despite their impending mortality, they created an ordinary world on the inside to protect their children from the raging genocide on the outside. Such was the nature of their love, faith and devotion. Indeed, this worship transcended parental affection. Into the gas chambers and crematoria of Nazi-controlled Europe, the Jews of the Holocaust emptied their faith and love, while they continued to worship the God of their ancestors.

The human spirit strives for autonomy and freedom. Yet, to appreciate human nature, one must descend into the depths of depravity and terror. We cannot understand humanity without comprehending its wicked flaws. Deep within the darkest recesses of brutal genocide, we discover a faint flicker of light representing love, passion, desire, hope, worship and reverence. Here is the essence of humanity – a flicker of light representing morality, faith, love and righteousness, in the midst of the dark whirlwind of malevolence. But it’s not enough that we understand the Holocaust. Our progeny must also comprehend it. Otherwise, it could happen again.

This is why we must always tell the stories of the Holocaust. Such stories represent the very worst of human vilification and the unsurpassed limits of our compassion. Holocaust stories teach us how to recognize the worst examples of humanity, but also the benefits of viable morality. The terror of genocide is not necessarily an inevitable human outcome. We must learn from the mistakes of our past, rather than repeat them. As long as we teach our children about the Holocaust, there is hope that it will never happen again.

I have been reading a lot of posts lately about Pokerstars newest promotion Ocean’s Thirteen Darfur Charity Tournament. I know , I know another promotion by another poker room.

Except this has really touched me, and given me a new perspective on this company. You hear all the time about film stars giving to charity benefits, companies sponsoring events but I have never heard of a poker room doing such a thing.

So today my task was to dig a little deeper into what kind of organizations Pokerstars supports, and I was blown away to say the least. Here is a huge multi billion dollar online gaming company who continually makes an effort to support local and international benefits.

Needless to say sometimes I am out of the loop as to promotions, I play my favorite games and that is about it but this just caught my attention and through some leg work I found multiple events.

Did you know that Pokerstars hosted a memorial fund raiser for the victims of the tragic Virginia Tech? It was a $20 buy in with 0.01 going to the prize pool and the rest of the fund were being donated to VT, not to mention that Poker stars matched all proceeds.

They also did the same thing for the victims of the Tsunami and again for Hurricane Katrina relief, all to the Red Cross.

This year they were the main sponsor for the 2007 Life Ball Charity Event held in Vienna, which is an event to help fight AIDS. If Pokerstars is going to be a sponsor you can sure as hell bet that they are going to be making a huge contribution …and they did just that. They set up an amazing promo where they hosted free rolls. For every player who registered for this tournament Pokerstars donated $1 on top of the already $100, 000. But it doesn’t stop there they also held a $5 +$10 charity tournament where $5 went to the prize pool and the other $10 went as a donation where than Poker Stars matched everyone’s $10 donation.

Now they are helping the people of Dafur who are stricken by terrible living conditions in their war torn region. It’s an absolute tragedy and this is one site that I give huge amounts of respect for taking action. They have donated over $1 Million dollars to help with the situation and teamed up with the casts of Ocean’s Thirteen (George Clooney, Matt Damon etcc) to bring recognition to the devastation that has imploded these people.

I am not writing this to promote Pokerstars or I would have done so while they had there tournaments going on. I am writing this to show people that an online poker room can have an impact on humanity, and they should be applauded for doing so.

If you have not heard about the horrible events taking place in Dafur than I will briefly explain why this is such an urgency. The conflict began in the arid and impoverished region early in 2003 after a rebel group began attacking government targets, saying the region was being neglected by Khartoum.

The rebels say the government is oppressing black Africans in favor of Arabs. Over the years the rebel groups moved into villages in protest of the government and slaughtered anyone and everyone including children, raped women and stole whatever their hands could touch.

The government is being blamed however they lay the blame on others and remove themselves from any implications of wrong doings. The citizens are greatly affected by this and millions have fled in search of safety, but fleeing has only left them with very little water, food or even medicine for those who are sick. They have sought refuge in camps and are fearful of even leaving these camps in search of food or water due to killings that take place just out side of them.

Researchers and aid workers have a hard time reaching these people due to the fighting, but an estimation has pout the death toll above 400,000.

The Burning Tigris by Peter Balakian examines in great detail the massacres of over a million Armenians by the Turkish government during the late 19th century and during World War I. With over 1,100 footnotes to the work, Balakian leaves no stone unturned in this monumental work which focuses on a little-known area of Armenian, Turkish, and American history.

The story starts with the first massacres of Armenians in the late 19th century, and the first instances of organized killings by groups of Turks. As Christians, the Armenians (and to a lesser extent, Greeks and other Christian ethnic groups) were treated the the ruling Muslim Turks as second class citizens, at best, and expendable, at worst. This was in contrast to the fact that Armenians made up a large part of the intellectual and economic life of Turkey in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With the first of the massacres, however, the stage was set for future atrocities against the Armenians.

The rise of the “Young Turks” as leaders of the government was the point at which the plan to eliminate the non-Muslim groups was accelerated. The Young Turks, who came to power in 1908 under a guise of standing up for the rights of all the groups living in the country at the time, furthered the destructive path of their predecessor: Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The expectations of the Armenians for the brighter future promised by the Young Turk government, however, were met only with prejudice, hatred, and violence from the new rulers, who initiated a plan to eliminate the Armenians entirely.

With Turkey’s involvement in World War I, on the side of Germany, the government saw its opportunity to begin the systematic genocide of the Armenians. On one occurrence, April 24, 1915, in Constantinople, the Turks rounded up the intellectual and artistic leaders of the Armenians and proceeded to eliminate the vast majority of them. This scene, and many more horrifying ones, were played out across Turkey. Men and boys were burned alive, shot, stabbed, drowned, starved, and deported. Women endured the same fates as the men, along with various forms of sexual torture committed by the Turks. The trail of burned villages and dead Armenians extended across the entirety of Turkey.

Balakian cites sources as diverse as official government documents, correspondence from ambassadors, consuls, diplomats, and other witnesses to the events. The same descriptions of massacre and torture are played out over and over again in different regions of Turkey and are seen by numerous representatives of foreign governments and aid institutions.

The Turks culminate their activities in a nationwide deportation of the Armenians, who are forced to march from the homes hundreds of miles away into the desert, given no food or water, with intermittent killings and rape committed along the way. As can be expected, few Armenians survive the mass deportation.

By the end of the war, between one million and 1.5 million Armenians meet their fate at the hands of the Turkish government’s genocide, effectively wiping out two-thirds of the Armenian population of Turkey. If not for the philanthropic and activist involvement of important American organizations who provided aid to the Armenians, the number of dead may have been even more catastrophic. Such organizations as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Red Cross provided aid during the initial massacres and during the wide-scale genocide of World War I.

Balakian goes on to further examine the response of the world to the Armenian genocide from the end of the war until the present day. Unfortunately, the genocide has been pushed into the background of 20th century genocides, with Turkey actively denying the entire mess as Armenian propaganda, and America failing the Armenians both after the war, and even now, refusing to invoke the anger of Turkey by acknowledging the genocide. In fact, the US will not officially support using the word “genocide” to describe the systematic elimination of over one million people, in contrast to numerous other countries who have accepted the massacres as a genocide.

America’s giving in to Turkish influence is, of course, based on the lack of power exercised by the new Armenian nation, and the strategic location of Turkey. With two-thirds of its population destroyed, the Armenians were given their own country far from their original homes in Turkey, and were forced to accept the aid of the U.S.S.R. in order to gain protection against further attacks by Turkey after the war. Even with their current freedom, their military power and natural resources do not compare with those of the more influential Turkey.

And even now, America protects its military, economic, and political interests in Turkey, by its active complicity in the downgrading of what happened in the late 19th and early 20 centuries, culminating in the century’s first genocide. In this case, unfortunately, the winners have decided what history speaks for Armenia. And oil, as it has almost since its discovery and widespread use, runs thicker than the blood of millions of people.

With his book The Burning Tigris, Peter Balakian has given a definitive account of the Armenian Genocide and America’s successes and failures in aiding the remaining Armenians. Thoroughly sourced, well written, and accurately descriptive, this book brings to the light one of the darkest, most horrifying occurrences of the 20th century.

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Yes I’ve used a very strong term and it will no doubt case some furore, but I’ve been thinking on this for a very long time.

You see, we all know that Governments everywhere can be hypocritical, saying one thing then doing another. Seeming to care about issues and doing the minimum they can to make us believe they care, and not actually sorting out the problems in their own backyard first.

A couple of examples:

1: The UK government is gung-ho about foreign poverty, eradicating it and so forth, and so they should be, I’m not ever going to say they and we shouldn’t, but look at the situation here in the UK. We actually have millions living below the breadline, in poverty, and yet the Government cannot seem to eradicate this problem in their own country. What about homelessness? Take a look at Crisis’ report- http:// http://www.crisis.org.uk/ downloads.php/91/ HHBIC_backgroundpaper.pdf

200,000 households were accepted by their local authorities as being homeless, up from 160,000 in 1997. and Crisis has estimated that there may be as many as 380,000 Hidden Homeless people in the UK……continued homelessness is costing an estimated £1.4 billion each year. 1.4 Billion UKpounds! The Government spends nearly £4.9 billion in foreign aid and if you add about £5 Billion for Iraq (so far) you begin to see what I mean.

2: This one is simple hypocrisy. Telling other countries they can’t have nuclear capabilities because it’s bad, when we have nuclear power plants, nuclear subs, nuclear missiles etc. What gives us the right to tell others what they can and can’t have?. Oh, well we can’t let them because then they might point those man made phallic shaped hurty bombs at us and we don’t want that do we? No we don’t, but so bloody what? We’ve got more hurty bombs than they do, because we won’t actually live up to our principles.

So what is this all to do with Genocide? I’ll tell you and you’ll be dissapointed.

I believe the Government is actively trying to eradicate by death all smokers. Not by having them give up I hasten to add, even though they plough money into schemes to aid that and spend millions on advertising. No, it’s far more subtle than that. They pay lip service to the fact it’s bad for us, yet what are they really doing about it? I mean REALLY doing? They are deliberately killing us.

Many many years ago, you could go to any chemist/drug store and purchase Laudanum (heroin). Nowadays it’s illegal because it’s understood to be lethal.

So, the Government KNOWS that tobacco can be lethal, so why haven’t they banned it? It’s simple, if it’s likely to kill us as you say it does, make it illegal. Don’t just give warnings on the packet, because the other argument is, if it’s that bad for us, why are you allowing us to buy it in almost every shop? Have you lied to us and it’s not really as harmful as you claim?

My argument is simply this:

Cigarettes and the like are as addictive as heroin and kill, the Government allows them to be sold totally legally, therefore the Government is actually killing off a whole group of people, as they are ultimately responsible for our welfare.

Genocide: Deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group. See==>http://www.preventgenocide.org/law/convention/text.htm#II

COMMITTED AGAINST SOUTH AFRICAN WHITES

Every day hundreds of mails are sent around the world, asking for help to save some animal species.

Is it not very strange how the whole world is ignoring the apparent Genocide being committed against the white people in South Africa

This slaughter of whites by blacks is being portrayed in the media as -”merely crime related”.

If the motive of the crime is theft, why is it necessary to take the life of the person that has already handed over their cell-phone or wallet?
If the motive for the crime is hijacking, why take the woman with them, gang-rape her and then slit her throat?

If the motive for house-breaking is petty theft, why throw boiling water over the farmers before killing them, after forcing them to watch their wives being gang-raped and tortured in front of them?

Were the mass murders in Bosnia “merely crime related”?

Were the mass murders of Jews in Germany during WWII “merely crime related”?

Are the daily murders of various tribe members in Kenya “merely crime related”?

WHY IS THE HUGE NUMBER OF MURDERS BEING COMMITTED AGAINST SOUTH AFRICAN WHITES LABELED – “CRIME RELATED”?

BUT… Why is it that the police can spend hundreds of thousands of Rands, and thousands of man-hours hunting down the one white that opened fire upon blacks in Skielik, whilst they cannot find any murderers of innocent, white children, women and men?

In any other countries a mass extermination of any tribe on such a scale would be considered Genocide, a crime against humanity, and an
international outcry would follow.

Hundreds of peace keeper would be sent to South Africa.

The United Nations would hold a special sitting.

Headlines in the mass media would be screaming blue murder.

The television channels would be filled with scenes of the dead bodies, and their grieving families.

Yet in South Africa, the murder of the white tribe by the blacks is reduced to a statistic and labeled “crime”

The state sponsored media hardly spares their murders a few lines.

The police refuse to release statistics on the extent of the murders.

What must we do to focus the world’s attention on this GENOCIDE, disguised as crime?

If you’re a concerned citizen, whether in South Africa or internationally,
you are morally bound to act NOW!

Get letters published in your local media highlighting the plight of the white tribe in South Africa.

Ask why the ANC (African National Congress) led South African Government is suppressing crime figures.

Ask why the murders of white citizens in South Africa are not being solved.

If, as the media are quick to proclaim “WHITES CONDUCTING A RACIST CAMPAIGN AGAINST BLACKS” why do you not hear hundreds of reports of whites killing blacks for their cell-phones?

Why are the whites not killing blacks for their cars?

Why are the whites not breaking into the upper class black neighborhoods, raping and murdering the women, before making of with their TV sets?

This GENOCIDE must be brought to the attention of the world media before it is too late. Before all the Whites have been erased from the face of South Africa.

Please do your bit to help the White citizens of South Africa. Please spread the word to all you know and who might be able to bring this to light to the world.

Alert the world to the mass extermination taking place right in front of
their eyes, as the local news papers hardly report on these incidents anymore.

When such a “crime” occurred, the whites are really extremely lucky to end up getting a space allocated in the news papers on page 10, briefly telling the story of yet another “crime” related murder story like it’s no big deal.

Alert all white tourists that are considering a visit to South Africa of the perils they will face.

Criticize the international mass media for their failure to report on the daily occurrence of murder and rape.

Quote:

Genocide’ was coined by a jurist named Raphael Lemkin in 1944 by combining the Greek word ‘genos’ (race) with the Latin word ‘cide’ (killing). Genocide as defined by the United Nations in 1948 means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, including: (a) killing members of the group (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.you feel this is true for your situation, you have rights to be protected by the UN, you may have to leave SA and return another day…use them.

Chris is a normal everyday South African who is actively involved in fighting crime in South Africa. Born and bred in South Africa, his constantly trying to resolve the issues in South Africa regarding crime and corruption.

By telling the world what’s happening in South Africa, as seen through the eyes of millions of helpless South Africans, he hopes that the rest of the world would take note of what’s happening locally and give aid to a country desperately in need.

Konrad Lorenz, a 19th century doctor of psychology and scientist once wrote, “Humans have not evolved any ritualized aggression inhibiting mechanisms to ensure the survival of the species. For this very reason, man is considered a very dangerous animal.” True? Recently many countries held talks on how best to try and preserve what is left of the earth and stop depletion of the ozone layer. In addition, treaties, or contracts were signed by those nations pledging to their respective neighbors they would at least try to do their part. China, and the United States, or Bush’s country, were not willing to sign or commit to anything, nor would they join! Consequently, it is very hard to imagine that every voter, individual, peoples in both countries go along with, or want to continue destroying everything until nothing is left. Recent earth quakes, tornado’s, and outbreaks of lethal viruses abounds around the globe, not just centrally located in one small area or another. Furthermore, oceanic wildlife has began to feed on humans more and more as their homes, territory is invaded. Sounds like all the wars going on everywhere around the world, does it not? What possible motive or want can we have to kill or destroy all that there is? Are humans that jealous, or self indulged that they must murder, infect, destroy the homes of their neighbors and loved ones?

Very sad, how society can look at a Pit Bull, point and say, go get it, kill it, bash the dogs head in with a crowbar or baseball bat! Then go have Sunday dinner after church and eat more food then ten families may have for a week, claiming what good Christian’s, or God fearing people they are. Religion really does not play such an important role here, I do apologize for that. What is so tragic is how we have let our entire world slip into an abyss of no return. Ice packs are melting more and more each day, yet we still laugh at Science Fiction written long ago that portrays exactly what is going on right now, in the present. Every state, some more, some less, have built bigger prisons since our kind consider everyone a suspicious person now. Background checks run online with the click of mouse and show everything about anyone with the click of a mouse. That’s right, if you made a mistake 20 years ago, look out, because if you apply for a good job, the background check is going to show your mistake from 20 years ago! Naturally, there goes the job, regardless of qualified, or decent you maybe.

One more tool to be used to humanely qualify you and yours to quietly starve to death, or have your home reposed and then starve to death, or commit suicide. Certainly, there are other choices, you and your family could go live under a bridge somewhere, or seek shelter in a religiously run home for vagrants. All this, just to cut down on the population and anex, or label several thousand individuals like a mark, or brand! Whoops, sorry, that sounded like what Hitler did, did it not? However, is that not what is going on? Too bad your grandchildren or their children may never get to play in real sand, or touch a panda bear.

History teaches that man’s inhumanity to man knows no bounds. Intolerance of others, their appearance, their customs, their faiths, is indoctrinated by elders – children must be taught to hate. Hatred has led to genocide of millions of helpless people on a world-wide scope – by leaders both religious and anti-religious, by dictatorial governments, in both the distant and recent past. And in our generation, acts of vile and unspeakable cruelty have become commonplace: suicide bombings of children in school buses; blowings-up of celebrants at a wedding; beheadings of a newsman or of a divorcing wife; “honor killings” of sisters for wearing western-style clothing or speaking to a man..

The history of humankind is a litany of mass killings, not for food as in the animal kingdom, but for territorial acquisition, to increase power and domination of others. Wars were fought and peoples murdered to spread a ruler’s religion or to conquer, enslave and dominate. History has been written in blood by rulers and religions – the one, ambitiously seeking to control; the other, intolerant of a different faith or belief or color. From dark-age rampaging pogroms, to Islamic Jihads, to the Crusades, to conquest of the New World, to the Inquisition, to Stalin, to Hitler and genocidal Holocaust.

Mankinds early and complete dependency upon nature for his survival, led to deification of all frightful forces in his life, the creation and worship of mysterious powers as gods: of thunder, lightning, sun and rain, and earthquakes. Eventually came the concept of a single supreme-being, monotheism – God of the Hebrews, and subsequently Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc. A great side benefit was a moral code, the ten commandments, with ethical concepts for living and behavior – including tolerance for “different” strangers in your midst – “Love thy neighbor as thyself”.

However, as civilization progressed and populations grew, although the struggle for life’s necessities had diminished, competitions arose – for essentials, then desirables, water and fruitful land became items of contention. Populations and communities expanded, and people-pressure soon caused friction points. “Differences” became more important than “similarities”: tolerated as annoyances at first, such as differing appearance or background – but strong emotional contentiousness developed for major distinctions, such as contending religious beliefs. Coerced conversion, banishment or death became not uncommon – as with the Spanish Inquisition. Undoubtedly, hundreds of thousands of helpless human beings have been killed by the excesses of religion in recorded history.

Clearly then, man’s warlike nature was apparently not curbed by devotion to even a moral divinity. Dismayed at the carnage, rational philosophy began to reason – certainly no true divine, thus moral power, could tolerate, much less demand, such unwarranted cruelty to fellow humans, thus such divinities must be false – thus arose a countering, secular, even anti-religious philosophy: rule-by-rationality. Throughout the gory litany of history, peace-seeking philosophers, war-weary, had dreamed of a Utopian world without conflict, of individuals living quiet lives without violence or desperation, safe from attacks upon personal freedoms, wishing only to enjoy their families and accomplishments in peace – and to die in bed at a reasonable age.

Mankind began searching out a workable approach to peaceful governance – coexistence among peoples of differing faiths, beliefs and philosophies – without rancor or bloodshed. By a logical “either-or” argument, if “God” and “Religion” seemed to be more cause than solution, perhaps a durable and peaceful co-existence could be achieved between nations and peoples if “faith” in a supreme creator would be discarded and replaced with trust in human-kind, motivated by “tolerance and reason”.

Human nature, however, absent the moral and ethical compass of religious restraint, soon tended to gravitate to authority without limitation – and therefore, with no restraint against ultimates in extremism (and inevitably justified) – without impediments to increasing acquisitions and the reach of authority, the ultimate in human misconduct – mass murder – became accepted, and rationalized without twinges of conscience. With no supreme authority and morality, only fallible man becomes the judge for right and wrong – and wrong is readily justifiable. With “political correctness” holding sway, as it is currently, religion itself can become targeted.

Extremism of religious ideology and bigotry cannot be denied. Millions of lives have been taken by hatred as frenzied zealots of (any) one religion held power over others – oft-times, forcing conversion or the sword. Human intolerance of faiths other than their own, especially during outbreaks of mob psychology – particularly when exhorting a divine “commandment” to kill – are spurred on by the inflammatory and present-day instantaneous distribution of world news. Such bloodshed is even more commonplace today than in the past.

And so, while religious fury, uncontrolled, has murdered many millions, history shows that the absence of, or antipathy to religion, has been even worse. Despotic rulers have caused the killing of over 100 million people – by Communism and Nazi-ism within this past century: China, Soviet Union, North Korea, Cambodia, Africa, Afghanistan, and Nazi Europe.

Today, of the world religions,almost all seem to have grown beyond desires to kill or compel conversions of other faiths, only extremists seem to still justify the sacrifice of not only their own lives, but also those of their own children, so as to deny others their desired worship of choice.

Even greater extremism is evident today, the virulence being obvious in the selected venue for violence – where civilians, especially children gather – bloodied body-parts of innocents shown in lurid photos and described in the newspapers – blown-up in buses, restaurants, marketplaces, houses of worship. So what is the carnage scorecard?

History has shown that when the supreme decision authority for life and death has been controlled by human ethical standards of morality and justification, the pursuit of ever-greater powers and conquests seem irresistible. Rationalizations and unfeeling assessments of benefits and advantages seem to easily overcome restraint – leading to carnage and ferocity – greatly exceeding even inflamed religious bigotry. Instead of the envisaged tolerance and fraternity, the end result of political experiments in “enlightened” human authority has been both unanticipated and uninhibited, the untethering of the worst instincts of human beings.

And yet, one has only to see youngsters at play, so see how friendly humankind can be. Why must we teach our children to hate?

Aaron Kolom qualifies as a “rocket scientist” with over 50 years aerospace engineering: Stress Analyst to Chief of Structural Sciences on numerous military aircraft, to Corp. Director Structures and Materials, Asst. Chief Engineer Space Shuttle Program through first three flights (awarded NASA Public Service Medal), Rockwell International Corp.; Program Manager Concorde SST, VP Engineering TRE Corp.; Aerospace Consultant.

Aaron L. Kolom – from Brainwashed* and Miracles**

* The Perceived Mind-Set of the Secular Elite re Darwin Evolutionism!

** To Believe in Them – Have Faith – In Science and Logic!

Visit website at [http://www.brainwashedandmiracles.com] to learn a bit about Science vs the Bible, from conflict to confirmation.