Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

The basic tenets, of almost every religious or spiritual belief system, include a love a fellow man and peace.  Yet religion has been the double edged sword at the forefront of almost every major conflict in the history of the world.  Where Christianity, Islam and Judaism is concerned, their God of "love and peace" has spoken through heaven's angels to go forth and decimate each other for the greater glory in the name of God.

Really?  And, the masses seemingly ignore what is written in their own scripture in favor of their religious leaders interpretation of God's demands.  They get caught up in the bloodlust of leaders with agendas, contrary to the agenda of God, and in the process damn themselves in the eyes of God through guilt by association.  I can just see God passing judgment reasoning that ignorance is no excuse.  God gives us the tools, but we rely on someone else to interpret those rules?  That dog just don't hunt!

One can almost understand conflicts between cultures with unrelated religious philosophy.  But with these three major world religions we have philosophies that enjoy a common historical root--Abraham. 

What is even harder to understand is the ongoing conflicts within the religions themselves.  Persecution of sects within the religion based on their particular interpretation of scripture.  We have seen this early on in Judaism, again during the growth of Christianity, and after the death of Muhammad, the splintering of the Islamic faith has given us the latest heretical division of the faithful.  Islam has the order from God to do no harm to the "chosen people," the Jews, yet, not only can Islam not wrap their minds around this simple task, they can't even wrap their minds around doing no harm to each other! 

Remember, though, this is not just an Islamic issue.  This is an issue mankind has had to grapple with since the beginning of time.  The debate over whether they worship the same God continues to this day.  But is this really the issue?  Why should this even be more than a footnote for discussion between the religions?  I can understand back in the day, when man was not as advanced and the masses not as educated as we are today, how the rabble could be whipped into a murderous frenzy in the name of God even though the Almighty never condoned it.  But, in today's world?

One would think we have grown to the point that we can recognize what the root cause of our conflicts are, and deal with them.  One would think we are intelligent enough to "bury the hatchet," preferably not in each other's backs.  A good example would be the Christian conflict between the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.  Does anybody even care what started that?  Does anybody involved in it even remember?  And with the internal conflict of Islam, basically caused by the greed of Muhammad's own family after his death.  Really?  Greed overwrote the sacred text of law given to the faithful and Islam has been tearing itself apart for half a millennia?

To quote Rodney King's famous plea, "Why can't we all just get along?"

In an attempt to answer this question, I would like everyone to consider the following excerpts from an article, "Why Can't We All Just Get Along?" by Douglas E. Noll, Esq., a Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators and a Fellow of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators:  

"The truth is that we are 98 percent emotional and about two percent rational. Thus, the assumptions underlying many disciplines and practices, especially peacemaking, need significant revisions. Much remains unknown, but the implications of the research so far demonstrate that we must be far more aware of neuropsychological factors of human conflict. These factors explain much about conflict behaviors. They also provide insights about new interventions in serious and intractable conflicts. 

The path, however, is not easy. From anxiety and insecurity, we experience inadequacy (we don’t know what to do) and a drop in self-esteem (we don’t feel good about self). We ride on a broad emotional river and often experience fear of death, a drowning sensation, being shaky, or cold. Along this journey, our fear reaction system could pull us off the path of peace.

However, our self-protective system will override our altruistic system unless we choose otherwise. Because it is not the default choice, mobilizing the social attachment systems in conflict situations is challenging. The last thing a person wants is to feel altruistic towards her conflict cohort. As has been said to me many times, “I don’t want to sit around a campfire and sing Kumbayah!” Yet lasting resolution of difficult conflicts can only occur when our brains altruistic systems are fully operational. Thus, one challenge for peacemaking is to recognize when and why a person’s fear response system is dominating them, then craft an intervention that will allow the altruistic brain systems to take over."

 Yeah, like that's gonna happen.  And, maybe that statement in itself is our problem.  Our lack of belief that we can actually be disciplined enough to craft the intervention that will allow us to let our altruism come forth before we finally destroy each other, in the name of God!

Be at peace, and my God bless us all!