Everything that has a traceable beginning must also come to a traceable ending. In our life time, we witness births and deaths as a part of the immortality of life, and we are conditioned to think in terms of beginning and end to every thing within the scope of our thinking.
Mike Ghouse
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A question is asked by Bill McKenzie of Dallas Morning News and usually about of twelve panelists respond in the weekly Texas faith panel. Here is my response. Link: http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/05/texas-faith-what-gives-rise-to.html
Mike Ghouse, Foundation for Pluralism, Dallas, Texas
Everything that has a traceable beginning must also come to a traceable ending. In our life time, we witness births and deaths as a part of the immortality of life, and we are conditioned to think in terms of beginning and end to every thing within the scope of our thinking.
No matter what is out there in the universe, it has its own balance and its own trajectory. Where as no such balance is determined for humanity, we are in the open and have the free will to find our own balance.
Religions are designed to give that balance; when injustice is done to us, we may get enraged or melancholic and lose hope and balance – religion offers the wisdom to restore that balance through the device of forgiveness. It works within the frame work of every religious tradition to help the individual cope with the imbalance.
Giving hope is a big part of the religion, in areas where one loses hope, the restoration comes with the belief that there is a life here after where the evil will be punished and or the process of reincarnation will serve justice to those that are evil and reward those who have done well. Again, we are conditioned with the pleasure principle.
On a larger scale religions have offered similar hopes. The calamities like the Tsunamis, the tornadoes in Missouri or the Hurricane Katrina are explained away as “God only knows” and some find it convenient to blame human behavior such as the events of Sodomites to the victims of Katrina or Haiti. Very soon we will be hearing some pastor blame human behavior for the Missouri tragedy and beef up the claim for end times.
When hopelessness, lawlessness, corruption and distrustful behavior become common place, people seek an answer and Imagineering end times gives them the hope and a sense of relief that ultimately everything will be alright.
Jews, Christians and Muslims are expecting Messiah the Jesus to come back and restore peace and tranquility on the earth; thus the balance, it will end our suffering as he will lead us all into a new realm. The Hindus on the other hand believe that Lord Krishna will reappear to restore the righteousness back on the earth, and every religions tradition has an answer to the mass inexplicable suffering of humanity through the prism of end times.
There is a full blown discipline called eschatology that predicts the end times. I personally don’t believe that any one can predict the end times, it is a metaphor to bring an end to human suffering or giving it new beginning. However, in the oral traditions of Prophet Muhammad it nears when human suffering increases, when injustice becomes the norm of the day. This is a behavior modification tool designed by the religions consciously to bring about a change. I hope each one of us had a chance to think about it and clean our slate and start the life afresh with no-ill will, malice, anger and hate and I hope every one started forgiving others and requested for forgiveness to have a new beginning. The Jain tradition sums this act of cleaning the slate in a beautiful phrase called Michami Dukadam.
Mike Ghouse is committed to building cohesive societies. He is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, interfaith, cohesive societies offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He work is logged in at http://www.mikeghouse.net/