Globalism, Part 4: Unity and Religion

Why unite? The theory goes that the world is in a terrible time of destruction. Poverty is an enormous problem coupled with Aids. The chance for another great epidemic has skyrocketed since the rise of transportation efficiency. Issues facing the 21st Century world are: Over-population, global warming, wars, weapons of mass destruction, tyrannical dictators, imperialism (e.g. the USA), the energy crisis, terrorism, unfair trade, etc. Our world is getting increasingly smaller. What happens in one place effects another. Just look at the global economy. What happens in Asian markets effects ours while we’re still sleeping. The same goes for “global warming.” The earth is begging for us all to get on the same page. We can’t be national-centric anymore because what one country does effects all the others. This conclusion was adopted as early as the 1920s when our own President, in conjunction with British officials, proposed the League of Nations. (It actually could be traced back even further to Immanuel Kant, an extremely influential philosopher of the late 18th Century.)

Think about what the United Nations (hereafter, UN) is. It is the outworking of the failed “League of Nations.” The League of Nations was the idea of President Woodrow Wilson, yet our country didn’t want anything to do with it. We wanted to be isolationists. The League of Nations was created after WWI in attempt to “prevent” another world war. Likewise, the foundational purpose of the United Nations is to prevent war. Therefore, they promote peace. According to them, the uniting of nations is the only way to accomplish peace. We must come together in agreement. We don’t wipe out those we disagree with (e.g. Saddam Hussein). The UN doesn’t want mere national agreement. They want one nation by which there is no one left to disagree with.

Historically, religion has been a central issue in most wars. Religious wars are of the worst kind. They lead to genocide. They caused the Crusades (According to Pope Urban II’s speech in 1095 at the Council of Clermont, the Crusades WERE NOT just an aggressive action. They were also a re-action to Islamic aggression. Both religions were to blame. Remember, however, that before the Christians wanted to take those “Holy Lands,” during the Middle Ages, the Mohammedans (Muslims) took them in war in the 600s.) Religion is the cause of Islamic Terrorism in the world today. It is the cause of the Protestant vs. Catholic terrorism in Northern Ireland. If the UN can get us to unite our religions, then they think they can end war. “Unity” and “peace” replace “Father” and “Son.” (8) In a truly “tolerant” society, every idea is equal. That is the hallmark of post-modernity. Everybody has a piece of the truth, and we just put these pieces together to glean a mosaic of truth. Where things appear to contradict one another, we simply recognize that we don’t know everything, and we must believe that truly perfect knowledge would reveal harmony of ideas.

The NAM teaches that there is no one way to God. God is bigger than a single religion. He or she is transcendent of that. Religion is merely the manifestation of individual cultures. It is the way communities express devotion to higher-ness. No religion is “wrong” because all express through their own relative experience. Therefore, one can learn from all religions.

Remember at this point, however, that they want to move beyond our present state. What does that mean? Presently, we live in a world that fights wars over religious differences. If we can all come to the realization that we’re just manifesting cultural differences, then maybe we can all just get along. After all, God is god whether he or she is called Yahweh, Jesus, The Triune God, Buddha, Allah, Baal, Ishtar, The ONE, Nature, Zeus, Sophia, or Goddess. If we can unite on this and also unite on morality, then we can move the world into greater peace, joy, and love. It has long since been believed that atheists have no moral code since they have no religion to base it on. Ask any atheist if they believe in morality, and they will tell you that they do. It’s based not on religion but on philosophy (i.e. on Plato, Aristotle, Levinas, Camus, etc.). So not even atheists are left out of this attempt to unite. God, for them, is replaced with “Good.” Atheism wants to demote religion because religion is the cause of war, division, misunderstandings/“poor understanding,” etc. However, they can philosophically agree believe in the "ethics" of the UN's goals.