Pain and Suffering

A few days ago I watched this:



It is an excellent breakdown of the fallacy of monotheism and religious intolerance. Obviously, I don't agree with this point of view, so let me address some of the points that Dr. Sam Harris has made within the context of my spirituality.

The pain and suffering of innocent or good people is caused by other people or themselves. The realm we live in was created as a safe haven for our souls to inhabit by the gods. It was created to provide our souls a place to grow and learn. My gods are mysterious and I have no idea how they think. However, they have no covenant with me to provide salvation or succor. I am here on my own and I can only rely on those other people who will help me. And that's the point of being here: To help each other through the experiences of life to become better people. If my gods interceded every time I fell down, I'd never learn anything.

Your culture or beliefs don't threaten me. We're all stuck here and we need to make the best of it. Telling one group of people that they are going to suffer in the afterlife creates an irreparable divide between us during life. Think about that. What kind of working relationship is designed by intolerance for the higher being you worship? I certainly have a hard time working with people who are outspokenly intolerant of my beliefs.

Lets go back a step. Your culture or beliefs don't threaten me. The kind of person who issues statements like, "You're going to hell for your beliefs!" is a person full of fear. They are so intimidated and fearful of different beliefs than their own that they are convinced their god will destroy those people in the after life. What kind of god would do that? Not one of the gods I worship would destroy or even damn a human soul -- no matter what their beliefs.