The spirit is
more generous
without God
on its side

The religious war to end all religious wars?
Harold Hark
23 October 2002

We've all had a go at the causes of the atrocity in Bali. It's been cathartic.

I do not believe, as Archbishop Peter Carnley and many others believe, that it was a direct result of John Howard's asinine alliance with a United States that now is clearly only interested in Saddam Removal for the oil.

On the other hand, Howard has unnecessarily alerted the enemies of decades of US imperialist hegemony to Australia. A friend of their enemy is another enemy. The root of Howard's Umeruhcan arse-licking is as banal as wanting to be seen as a big man by his immediate family and to be seen as the bully's ally. We all grew up with similar alliances in the schoolyard.

Those who counsel against the invasion of Iraq are not appeasing Saddam Hussein or trying to hide from terrorism. They are merely using their heads. Until it can be proved that Saddam is at the heart, or even the periphery, of the terrorist networks, it is a waste of time and money to keep harping on about him. Terrorism should be the target, not saving the boy emperor's face and/or appeasing his oil lust.

Whether or not the Bali terrorists are directly connected to Osama and al Qaeda, we should remember that one of bin Laden's primary reasons for terrorism was to destabilise not only the world, but particularly the governments of moderate Muslim nations for the purposes of installing Taliban-like regimes.

Bali is 95 per cent Hindu, regarded by fundamentalist Muslims as no less decadent than Christianity. What better place to strike both religions and destroy the economy of an entire island state.

Bali is also a holiday spot for drunken foreigners. The Sari Club practised discrimination against Indonesians in its bid to keep the place indigene-free. Fifteen years of this could have been reason enough for revenge by Balinese militants, Hindu or otherwise.

Fundamentalists of all religions hold similar views: Secular modernity is Satanic; scantily clad women are an abomination; alcohol is the elixir of evil. And so on. The Sari nightclub was a mecca for all these.

The Age of Terrorism has heretofore been directed at the United States by Islamic fundamentalists. With 9/11 and now Bali, regardless of who is responsible for the bombing, we are about to enter into a global war. The most frightening aspect of this war, as it will be fought in its early stages, is that the United States is currently run by Christian fundamentalists. Until they are replaced by people who have evolved beyond the need for a paternal God to instil fear and reinforce a feeling of helplessness, the war will have no real meaning. It will simply be a mindless decimation into anarchy.

However long it lasts, this will likely be the last religious war on the planet. If fundamentalism wins, well, it's back to the bottom rung on the evolutionary scale. But if fundamentalist governments (who rule in Israel and India as well) and Islamic guerilla cells are eventually prevented from ushering us into the Armageddon they all long for, the result will be a world forced to enter a post-religion era--by then the human race will simply have had enough of essence-dwarfing religions--one quite likely of peace and prosperity. Without religion to deny the mind and tribalise compassion, many other problems associated with base human nature will likely die in their own petty bile.

Whether this Utopian age eventuates is, of course, moot. One thing is certain: the near future may come to symbolise the hell all religions love to threaten us with.

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