On Faith and Fanatics

In morals what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil. - Anna Jameson

I happened to visit Batjay’s Kuwentong Tambay a few days ago. His post, written in his usual irreverent funny way, was about life after death,. While reading, I run into another visitor who kept harassing anybody whose view runs counter to his. All in the pretext of caring and saving us from sin. Hypocricy aside, I don't know how somebody can "care and save" some faceless total strangers. He annoyed me enough that I tossed some nasty words of my own. I don’t regret what I did. The way he conducts himself, he had it coming. Things cooled down when Jet (Batjay’s wife) stepped in. Her diplomatic skill and choice of metaphor deserves commendation.

You see, I don’t mind what you believed in or what your beliefs are. I’d be more interested to know why you believed in it. It upset me if one criticizes another ones opinion without proof and shove his idea down everybody’s throat without provocation. It’s quite alarming to imagine when one judges his belief as the only truth, his faith the only salvation and the rest are hogwash. A lot of men suffered and countless lives lost because of this myopic way of thinking.

In our modern world, where information and knowledge are retrieved with a click of a finger, men of such disposition still hold influence on other men and even countries. Some possesses charismatic personality. They have uncanny ability to sway people to his will even to their death without question. With such men abound, like in the middle ages, we’ll wakeup one day to witness history repeating itself. If it's not already happening.