The War God

     Now it would seem then that when we consider what is commonly thought of as ‘faith' and what is called by those who believe ‘true religion' one finds that ‘faith' and ‘belief' seem to be for the most part custom and social convention. A person is ‘saved' by bringing their behavior into line with the customs and practices of a certain group, and membership in that group is then the criteria for salvation. Faith does not seem to mean much more than that.

     As an example of what I mean we can consider what I will call the three War God religions, the three related faiths of Judaism, Christianity and the Muslim religion. All three religions propagate the notion of the War God, a god who it is said sends human beings out to war for various reasons. For example a Muslim might list off the reasons why Allah would send Muslims out to war, and this includes such things as ‘a threat to the Muslim states' which of course leads us to the doctrine of ‘the just war' or the ‘Holy War' (‘jihad'). Both Muslims and Christians practiced forced conversions by the edge of the sword, something not practiced by Jewish religion, which, if you read the ancient documents, resorted rather to genocidal slaughter and just skipped the whole business of conversion.

     Now let us assume that Allah saw that the Muslim state was threatened or that Muslims were being oppressed or that the Muslim faith was meeting with resistance. At this time Allah would endorse Holy War, and Muslims could then go out to the battle field, to be fried, bombed, burned, hacked, whacked, and bludgeoned, stabbed, shot and hopefully, at the end of the war, they would prevail and thus the True Religion would be safe, and the Muslim state would be saved.

     It goes without saying that no god gets stabbed, burned or bombed, but then gods only ask humans to stab and get stabbed, to shoot and bomb and get shot and bombed when it is a ‘just war'. We know from experience that gods do nothing for anyone, other than of course to give them ‘feelings' about certain things, perhaps a ‘word of knowledge' that came to a Christian believer, but as everyone, including religious people knows full well, gods do nothing for anyone, and the most foolish thing a person can do is to trust in a god when the chips are down, when the going gets tough, when the situation is desperate. Even religious people know this, and that is why religious people are usually among the most vociferous war hawks, something I have been observing lately. For example, a Christian television program just the other night featured a fluttering flag and a large chorus singing ‘their are wars to be won and fighting to be done'.

     Now let us assume that Allah or the Christian God saw injustice was being done to the True Religion and the Faithful Saints. One could imagine the faithful and Chosen Ones to pray up to their god and no doubt strike terror into the hearts of the evil ones, the ungodly enemy of the True Religion and God's Chosen People. We can imagine then that the first thought to enter the mind of a TRUE SAINT would be faithful trusting prayer and confident endurance followed, naturally, by DIVINE INTERVENTION. But religious people of all faiths are pragmatic types, and while all religion serves up platitudes regarding trust and the promises of god and so on, when the chips are down religions become WAR RELIGIONS and their gods become WAR GODS, because when the customs and the conventions and platitudes of religion are practiced, as they must be practiced, in the end religious people, much like the world's most die-hard atheists, know better than to really trust in any god. Rather than call on a god, they will pound their pruning hooks into spears and go to war. Of course the conventional platitudes of religion must be maintained, because we are talking here about appearances and the customs and conventions must be maintained as customs and habits are, and so naturally while religious people go to war it is only natural that they cannot leave their god out of it, even though it is readily apparent that their god is in fact out of it, it being not a god going to war, after all, but religious people going to war, and so it has always been. Religious people will go to war by themselves, knowing better than to not go to war and trust in some god, but they will pray to their war god to bless their armies, and if they prevail in their war prayers and their war chaplains prevail in blessing the bombers and bullets and the tanks, they will naturally thank their god for victory, war gods being the kinds of gods that religious people pray to while religious people go to warring, religious people being pragmatic atheists when push comes to shove after all, or so it seems. They know better than to pray to god for something more than blessings on tanks and bombs and bullets.

     That religious people are in truth pragmatic atheists can be easily proven by simply suggesting to religious people preparing for war that they desist in warring and instead place their full one hundred per cent trust and confidence in their god for deliverance. Now anyone stupid enough to suggest such a thing to the religious followers of the religious war god will get scorned to shame and ridiculed no end, because religious people are to pragmatic, and to much the atheist in heart to actually really believe in the deliverance of a god. This is proven when they turn to bombs and bullets and begin going on about ‘just wars' and just generally talking the religious holy war talk while walking the pragmatic godless war walk, knowing full well that if they trusted in god at a time like that or placed their safety and survival into the hands of some fickle and unreliable god they would be crushed to dust. They are pragmatic at the end of the day, but remarkably, as I have seen, even though religious people reject the notion of really trusting god, and go warring instead, while they are doing their own warring, they will continue as religious people do, to talk the talk, the religious talk, talk of ‘trusting a god' and ‘believing a god's word' and so on, when it comes to the mundane affairs of ordinary life. It turns out that a god who can't be trusted or relied on for anything really important, say in times of war or danger, can still be remarkably reliable when it comes to giving a word of knowledge or guiding churches in their everyday lives, their quest for that better job or ‘healing for that relationship' or whatever else. Gods, it turns out, are constantly busy, reports pour in of their many conversations and their divine protections in ordinary life, about the only time gods turn out to be completely useless being when religious people go off to war.

     Now no god ever gets butchered. You can't drop a bomb down a god's smoke stack. You can't kill a god's family by bombing them from the air (while of course going on about how unfortunate it was that you killed god's family, but then, being moral pragmatists, churches will remind you of how people do die in wars, after all, that's just the way it is). People die in wars. God's do not die in wars. God's usually don't even show up for wars, thus making it less likely that a god might get burned, napalmed, shot, speared, skewered, disemboweled, exploded or mangled. People get mangled, burned, hacked to death, shot, bombed and tortured in wars, which is what happens in wars, after all, and therefore, if we are being realistic and pragmatic atheists, we should realize that and just accept it.

     Just as an interesting experiment I propose that someone should try preaching zealous godliness to churches in the middle of their warring, and thus determine once and for all if it really is true that churches are in fact pragmatic atheists for whom religion consists of nothing more than orderly society, habit, custom and dogma memorized off by heart. You could for example suggest to the True Saints following The One True Religion who know personally The One True God (the one true War God) well you could suggest to them that rather than going warring themselves they might pray up to that ever present ever listening ever involved god of theirs for divine intervention and divine protection. Instead of going warring and then asking god to bless the war effort, as war gods do, you might ask them to pray for that war god to go warring itself for a change, you know, so religious saints could stay home rather than getting barbequed on some battle field themselves, something gods never have to do, but rather, being war gods after all, expect people to do instead (its called holy war, because it was endorsed and encouraged by a war god, who never shows up for wars in person, and certainly never does the fighting, which would be a lot easier, and a lot quicker too, that thing being a god after all, , but rather a war god prefers to watch wars, as people do in suburbia, and maybe, just maybe, if enough prayers are said, to shift battles one way or the other).

     So if it was true that say Allah was concerned that the Muslim state was in danger, or the Christian War God was concerned for the safety of America and the Christian faith, well one could expect Allah or that Christian War God to get up off the throne and do something about in person, instead of sending a bunch of religious people out to warring, something that will take years and years and cause horror and sufferings on the earth, which is what wars are, after all, and something people do, not gods. One could expect the faithful True Believer, the devout Muslim or Christian to think first of the thundering divine interventions of their god and the immediate salvation and deliverance of The Chosen Ones, turning in every case to god in resolute trust in the certainty of deliverance and vindication. One could think like that, but in practice religious people are all the same, whatever name tag they wear or whatever name tag they hang on their god. They are pragmatic atheists who trust their god for nothing, who would mock to scorn any suggestion that maybe, instead of warring, they might trust their god. They know better than to do that, and that is why throughout history they never have, and they don't do it today, and tomorrow is just another day.

     They trust in their armies. They will ride on war horses, they will trust in swift horses. Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots, their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, their horses‘ hoofs seem like flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind. For of Yahweh it was said, ‘in returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." And you would not, but instead you said, "No! We will speed upon horses," therefore you shall speed away; and, "We will ride upon swift steeds," therefore your pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one, at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on war horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but forget about their God. The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. They lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel and have no mercy, the sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride upon horses. But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will deliver them by YAHWEH their God; I will not deliver them by bow, nor by sword, nor by war, nor by horses, nor by horsemen. Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,' to the work of our hands. In thee the orphan finds mercy. He who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who rides the horse save his life. And in that day, says YAHWEH, I will cut off your war horses from among you and will destroy your war chariots. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the war chariots and their riders; and the war horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his fellow. On that day, says YAHWEH, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness.