The fact is, many people use “God” to represent their own values, rather than the other way around. Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him and his family) said: “Adopt the attributes of God.”

But we tend to operate in the opposite way: “Adapt God to your attributes!”

So if we are racist, we make God racist, if we are violent, we make God violent.

Throughout history, God has been used to justify each one. “Jews are God’s chosen people.” the Crusades. “Render unto Caesar….” No, I would not say a belief in God automatically leads you to believe in these things, I believe just the opposite, but we cannot ignore how man’s psychological desire for a deity has been used to exploit him.

I haven’t covered the issue you raised on my blog, but it certainly deserves a post, rather than a comment.

But I would say that, in my opinion, the primary reason for why humans gravitate towards the belief in God is to make sense of the world and of ourselves. We want to believe that we are here for a reason (i.e. there is a purpose to our existence), and that the world operates according to a plan. This gives us the assurance that we can lead a life where we are valued (by the deity that created us) and will not face any hardship that is beyond the power of God to fix.

Accepting the existence of God grants us certainty that we understand the world, know how to act and what our goal is in life. Religion comes into the picture to define what our moral code should be. Many people don’t want to evaluate what they should do for themselves. They believe it’s too strong a burden to bear, and fear that they might make wrong decisions. But give them a set of commandments, and they can follow them without question, extending the certainty they have about the world and their purpose on earth to their actions.

I personally wouldn’t create a direct connection between the belief in God (or adhering to a religion) and the atrocities you mentioned, but they can have a common outlook.

If a person who forms an opinion out of faith (such as believing in God, without evidence), he would not entertain discussions, because they can shake his faith. And he would certainly despise knowledge that can undermine his conviction. The easiest thing to do is to nullify what he does not understand, or cannot associate with himself (because it poses a threat to him). Therefore, a man can become racist not because God justifies racism, but because acting on faith will necessitate that he remain ignorant in order not to experience contradictions between his knowledge and his faith.

There are other consequences to acting on faith, and many other reasons to why people believe in God. I personally believe in God, and think that His existence can be explained rationally, but that’s for yet another post

You state that “the psychological reasons for why one may exploit ‘love of God’ and ‘love of religiosity’ are very different.” I agree, and also enjoy your inclusion of psychology in the discussion. I wonder, though, what is your take on the psychological need of humans to have a God or gods in the first place? Why have we for so long looked for a higher form of existence than ourselves, and how does that affect our view on ourselves? I believe we must start here in order to understand why religion and God are more often than not used to justify atrocities (racism, genocide, compulsory taxation, etc.)

If you have addressed these topics elsewhere in your blog, please leave a link, for I am interested in your thoughts.

The primary focus of this post was to shift the Muslims’ attention from others to themselves. Rather than place the blame on others, they should accept and fulfil their own responsibility, which – as you pointed out – is what they try to avoid with the conspiracy theories.

I actually have greater tolerance for being led astray out of love of God than out of love of religiosity. The psychological reasons for why one may exploit “love of God” and “love of religiosity” are very different, but I think the consequences of the latter are more bleak and devastating.

There are many who “love” God because it is a means by which they can assure themselves that He approves of what they are doing, irrespective of what’s being done. It’s a means to bypass guilt, and justify for one’s self his own actions. This is typical of Christians who wear the cross around their necks and rejoice that they have attained salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus (peace be on him), but they do not observe any of his teachings.

The love of religiosity is usually expressed by those who have low self-esteem, or think that God simply wants to assert His authority, without there being any wisdom in His commands. They observe, but blindly. And because they think that religion is just a test of whether they will submit to God’s authority or not, they consider reasoning as a means of escaping from “religious duty” and are prepared to commit the most irrational of deeds in the name of true submission.

This is why killing civilians can be seen as a test of one’s faith, rather than a gruesome crime.

I think my comment turned into a post!! I’ll stop here and comment further on this topic in a future post

Thanks again for your comments, and I’m glad you liked my posts. I would suspect that most people would stop reading mid-way, or give up before starting once they realise how much the page scrolls down…