The Root of all Evil….

We have witnessed horrendous acts of terrorism such as the bombing in Manchester, and the Westminster Bridge and London Bridge attacks in London with the so called ‘Islamic state’ claiming responsibility for the killing and maiming of civilians. In Europe we have recently had the vile attack in Barcelona, and last year we saw the aftermath of a lorry in Nice decimating a public gathering, ruthlessly and barbarically killing people in its path knocking them down like skittles with absolutely zero regard for their life. Acts of hatred and pure evil.

Across the world, wars are being fought, people rendered dead, destitute, exiled, maimed for life, injured physically, psychologically and emotionally. The extent of man’s inhumanity to man seems unending and ever-increasing in its ferociousness and extent – we have used our so called intelligence to advance from killing one person at a time with a bow and arrow or sword to be able to annihilate hundreds of thousands of people at a time with just one nuclear bomb. And we think this is progress? We pride ourselves on the intelligence that can devise ways to annihilate more and more of our fellow human beings. How distorted and warped is that type of thinking? 
I recently watched the television series “The State” on channel 4 – about a group of young Muslims who travel to Syria from UK to join the radical ‘Islamic State’. It is a brutal and gruelling watch – made all the moreso because it is based on reports of how it actually is and not just a made-up excessive dramatisation. Whippings, beheadings, mass slaughter, gross inequality, oppression of women, slavery, rape of women and children, suicide bombing, inhumane prison conditions, torture and abuses of many kinds are all portrayed and performed in the name of Allah.

The problem is we have not been told, or shown or had it reflected to us in our upbringing that we ARE love. Man’s inhumanity to man stems from the ignorance of this fact – and the hidden or sometimes not so hidden beliefs that we are not worthy, that we are sinners, bad, not good enough and a whole host of other beliefs we can hold about ourselves that hold us as lesser in some way as a result of the messages we have received in our upbringing and through our education and religious teachings etc.

And religion in particular has an important role to play – and can be a means for people to know and connect to the truth of who they are or it can be a means to keep people lesser, as sinners, not good enough and in that lesser state, evil can work through the body of the person who is not claimed in the truth of who they are. The extent of that evil can vary greatly, from for example, an expression of anger to a vile atrocity – a spectrum exists from seemingly mild to severe of evil expressions and acts  – but energetically it is all in separation to the love that we are, and therefore, all evil.

As such we all have experienced and know what it’s like to express in a way that is not loving or respectful and part of our learning is to come to know that we are love, and then to live from and express from that love. It is important to realise that whilst evil can come through any of us when we are disconnected from the truth of who we are, no-one is in fact evil or born evil – everyone is love – but if that love is not lived or known then for sure we can be channels for evil (in its many guises) to come through us, and for which we are of course responsible.

Religion has also been bastardised and distorted to mean things it does not mean – to make it about rules, doctrine and dogma, rituals of one kind or another, beliefs about God rather than the lived knowing of God. Many of course, have felt the lack of truth in institutionalised religion and have walked away – some just from the institution but others from both the institution and God – albeit, a false portrayal of God.

I did the same myself – threw God and religion out the window at a young age and was convinced I would never have anything to do with either of them ever again. And I didn’t go near them for over 20 years and I could say I still don’t – in the form that they were presented to me as a child. The religion and God that I know today is very different to the religion and God of my childhood years. I can look back and say that I felt the lack of truth in what I was presented with as a child about God and hence why I rejected it and rightly so – but the lack of truth about God, about myself, led me to live a Godless life that resulted in acts and behaviours I would not partake in today.

It led to an existential crisis, with a head full of questions and a body suffering from an overload of ingesting excessive toxins of one kind or another, be it from food, alcohol, cigarettes, emotions etc. How different my life might have been had the truth of God and myself been reflected, taught, demonstrated to me? Thankfully, I have found the truth about God (and myself) and my life has changed and transformed as a result and continues to do so. Even so, I also know there is still a part of me that wants to do life my way, to make the choices I want irrespective of whether they are truly loving or not….and that part is the stubborn, prideful spirit that resists surrendering in full to the love of the soul. Too much my will instead of Thy will! A work in progress for sure….

Ignorance of God, means ignorance of self and vice versa – if we know who we truly are, we know God and we know who everyone else is also.  Not only would it eradicate vile acts but it would lead to a quality of living that far surpasses what we can imagine – where love, respect and decency in our interactions come first and foremost, a level of joy and vitality that most only dream of, an ease within ourselves and a cessation of always seeking more…..more achievements, more degrees, more cars, holidays, stuff, stuff and more stuff….in attempt to fill up the emptiness, whilst at the same time, working harder than ever before without getting drained or depleted….having a level of consistency and steadiness within no matter what is going on outside. All stemming from the quality of relationship we have with ourselves and God.

Religion is actually about the relationship we have with ourselves and all of life including God, with the foundation of that relationship being love.

 

So any form of religion be it Christian, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism etc that teaches and preaches that God punishes or wills any form of harm upon another, that God is a judge that rewards and condemns, that presents any form of ‘them and us’,  the saved and unsaved, that sees human beings as unworthy, sinners, evil or indeed as anything less than a Son of God is complicit in perpetuating the evil that is manifest in the world today. And yet each religion also has truth within it – but it requires a discerning heart to feel and know that which comes from false ideals and beliefs about God and that which comes from the lived knowing of God, from, with and in love, from our One Father.