(Answer at the end).
FAITH
By Charles Kocian
Last Friday December 8/2023 a resolution demanding Israel to halt the indiscriminate bombardment of civilians in Gaza was proposed by the UN Security Council. Of the totality of its 15 member states, 13 voted in favour, the UK abstained but the US vetoed it. This has left the US diplomatically isolated showing is a nation without empathy that supports Israel war crimes. How can this have happened? The answer is in Christian Zionism, a book written by Stephen Sizers, a priest of the Church of England.
In a YouTube video, Sizer explains that Christian Zionism is a geo-political movement that British Christian Puritans started in the UK in the early XIX century. By the way, 9 of 10 zionits in the world are Christians, mostly evangelicals. Christian Zionism it is based in a Biblical covenant between God and Abraham described in Genesis 12. “The Lord had said to Abram: ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. (2) I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you’”.
The book of Genesis.
In Genesis 15 God, as a competent real estate agent, describes the boundaries of the Promised Land. “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— (19) the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, (20) Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, (21) Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.’”
Land of Canaan
God was describing the land of Canaan, a key geopolitical region in the Late Bronze Age where Egyptian, Hittite and Assyrian Empires overlapped their interests. Today more than 50 million of US Christians Zionists want to help God to fulfil the Biblical covenant. They put special attention to Genesis 12:3 where it says: “I will bless those who bless you (Israel), and whoever curses you (Israel) I will curse. So, they don’t want to condemn the Israel massacre of Gaza because they are afraid God will curse them if they do it. US politicians know this, that is why they will unconditionally support Israel, otherwise they can lose an electorate of 50 million people. US only opposition to the humanitarian resolution of the UN Security Council has shown to the world the hypocrisy, cognitive dissonance and self-deception of a morally broken nation.
Joan of Arc burned by French Inquisition in May 30, 1431.
But empathy and morality were not very good in the Renaissance and short after. The French, Spanish and Roman Inquisition combated Protestant heretics and burned at the stake thousands of them, persecuting, Jews and Muslims as well. The most famous French case is when Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in May 30, 1431.
In the late 15th century, Spain believed that the corruption in the Catholic Church was caused by the “Marranos” (meaning “pigs”), who were Jews converted to Catholicism to survive centuries of anti-Semitism. Spanish rulers were afraid of angering Christian powerful families who demanded a harder treatment against the Marranos, because they believed they were secretly practicing their old religion. Puritans were persecuted in Europe too, and by the English Inquisition as well.
Decapitation of King Charles I in January 30, 1649.
Indeed, Oliver Cromwell, famous for cutting the head of King Charles I in January 30, 1649, was a Protestant Puritan who, like all Puritans, believed that the reforms of the Church of England were not enough. Based in the Old Testament cultural premises, he had a friendly disposition towards the Jews, but also realized the material advantages of readmitting them. He allowed the London Marrano community to establish its own cemetery and continue its freedom of worship. Cromwell’s favourable attitude toward the Jews was so marked that, according to its enemies, the Jews called him as their Messiah. Protestantism had a deep moral impact in all the Church and puritans played a significant role in the English civil war helping making justice to the Jews.
What about morality in ancient times? To give a quick example, in ancient Greece, on December 335 BC, Alexander the Great destroyed Thebes for its rebellion, selling into slavery thirty thousand people and killing six thousand soldiers in the final fighting. He burnt the city to the ground sparing only the temples. The massacre was a clear message to deter all the Greek city states of future rebelions.
On December 335 BC, Alexander the Great destroyed Thebes for its rebellion.
CONCLUSION
Although the UDHR and the Security Council of the UN is the result of more than 5,000 years of wars, gods and religions, from a Darwinian perspective, looks like man is far away from its moral perfection. From the Gaza massacre to the Christian Zionists, from the Inquisition to the Puritan Oliver Cromwell and back to Alexander the Great massacre of Thebes, history shows that few men have discovered their rational faculty is their soul. Indeed, Aristotle defined man as a rational-animal, but few men choose their critical thinking faculty as their main value and to question the premises of the culture they are born.
Aristotle defined man as a rational-animal.
Unscientific irrational cultural paradigms program the minds of children, just as a programmer programs a software and, when they become adults, they act mechanically, accordingly to the code of its cultural program. But Darwin has showed us that there is no destiny or gods and, as I say in my book, since each man writes its own story and chooses how it ends, the fate of humanity depends on how rational each man chooses to be.
Now the answer to question 80.
QUESTION N° 80
What are the virtues of a rational-objective-morality?
a) Rationality, integrity, independence, honesty, justice, productivity and pride.
b) Faith, compassion, independence, honesty, piety, productivity and humility.
The answer is: a) Rationality, integrity, independence, honesty, justice, productivity and pride. These rational virtues, proposed by philosopher Ayn Rand, are explained to a wider public in my book.
Leave your comments here.
