Tolstoy, Armstrong and Bronowski on Religious Fanaticism
By John Taylor; 2008 May 21, 05 `Azamat, 165 BE
Our theme inspired by master Baha'i speaker Joe Woods is religious fanaticism. I have been reading Leo Tolstoy's Confession, which deepened my interest even more.
Tolstoy, Confession, Translated by David Patterson,
I suppose when found it during a browse in our local library I was attracted by this, written on the back cover of the paperback: "In 1879 the fifty-one-year-old author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina came to believe that he had accomplished nothing and that his life was meaningless." Hmm, thinks I. That is my age right now, and when it comes to the uselessness of one's contribution, I have Tolstoy beat hands down; an unpublished blogger with nothing to show for thirty years of research and writing. Yet Tolstoy was driven into a spiritual crisis by a feeling of worthlessness.
The book does not disappoint, I must say.
Tolstoy is the greatest novelist, I realized, for one reason and one reason only: he was the most self-critical novelist, a seeker of truth who realized that the truth lies within, in one's moral condition. Want to find God? Make yourself worthy by criticizing yourself mercilessly, and acting on it. Tolstoy went from atheist to believer, very much like I did at age seventeen, and he explains every step of his way with wonderful insight in this book. I would recommend Confession to anybody going through this particular valley of search.
Here is an example of what Tolstoy has to say about religious fanaticism. He is talking about after he had found God, after he had taken the bit in his teeth and begun associating with other Russian Orthodox believers and trying to swallow the beliefs of this church. He then began associating with believers of other denominations of Christianity.
"As a result of my interest in faith at the time, I became acquainted with believers of various creeds: Catholics, Protestants, Old Believers, Molokans, and others. And I met many people among them of the highest moral character who were truly believers. I wanted to be a brother to these people. But what happened?
"The doctrine that had promised me a union with all through love and a single faith was the very doctrine that, in the mouths of its finest adherents, told me that these people were living in a lie, that the thing that gave them the strength to live was a temptation of the devil, and that we alone are in possession of the only truth possible.
"And I saw that the members of the Orthodox Church regarded as heretics everyone who did not profess the same beliefs as they, just as the Catholics and others viewed the members of the Orthodox Church as heretics; I saw that although she tried to hide it, the Orthodox Church regarded as enemies everyone who did not adopt the same outward symbols and expressions of faith as she.
"And it had to be this way because, first of all, the assertion that you live in a lie while I live in the truth is the most cruel thing one person can say to another, and, secondly, because a man who loves his children and his brothers cannot but regard as enemies those who want to convert his children and his brothers to a false faith. And this enmity grows in proportion to one's knowledge of the teachings and doctrine. Even I, who had supposed that the truth lay in a union of love, was forced to recognize that the teachings of doctrine destroy the very thing they set out to produce." (Tolstoy, Confession, pp. 85-86)
You will no doubt be hearing more from me about Tolstoy's Confession, although most of it falls under the category of proofs of deity rather than eliminating religious prejudice. But before taking a step further I want to refer all (or perhaps I should say both of) my readers to a current event that may turn out to be a major, historical step forward in the elimination of religious fanaticism. This is Karen Armstrong's suggestion for a "Charter of Compassion" which she says should be drafted and posted in places of worship by theologians of the big three religions for her, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. I have put it on the blog at:
<http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/karen-armstrong-charter-for-compassion.html>
"People want to be religious, says scholar Karen Armstrong; we should act to help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help her build a Charter for Compassion -- to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious (theme)."
She is consciously excluding all the other faiths, so do not get your hopes up for Baha'i participation. Interestingly, she parrots Tolstoy's insight when she says in this video, "Religious doctrines are meant to be summons to action, you only understand them when you put them into practice." In any case, this is a big step in the right direction, however limited it may be from a Baha'i point of view. Here is the link on the TED website: Charter for Compassion; Karen Armstrong: 2008 TED Prize wish: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/234
There is a second video posted on the blog last night called, "The Greatest Moment in Television, Ever."
<http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/greatest-moment-in-television-ever.html>
Of all the years I spent on a sofa in front of the plug-in drug, these two minutes from Jacob Bronowski's series on the history of science, "The Ascent of Man," is by far the finest. Bronowski explains the inevitable result of religious fanaticism in the most affecting manner possible. I was thrilled to find it on YouTube, for I have often written often about it. It is still hard to watch it without a thrill running down my spine. Since I would have seen this around the time I was investigating God, this probably guided my way to faith. In any case, I consider Jacob Bronowski to be my scientific father. If you cannot get it off my blog, here is the link on YouTube.
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