One idea that has a long history of sparking religious violence and brutality among homosapiens is the religious concept and psychology of "God's chosen people"!

The Old Testament is replete with stories depicting all the terrible things that "God's Chosen People" are allowed or commanded to do (by God) with God's blessing! They can commit the most horrendous acts without any guilt, because they're only carrying-out the dictates of their God and therefore these acts aren't bad because they're sanctioned by God!

The moral laws that judge these acts as bad when done by the rest of us don't apply to "God's chosen people". They can rape, pillage, commit genocide, take others land etc., without blame or guilt because their God allows them to! Because they're his pet people! (How many religious wars have been fought by people with this attitude!) The only way they can see to get along with others is to convert them to their way of thinking or kill them if they can't!

They themselves as "good" and have a blind eye for anything bad in themselves! They only see the bad in themselves when they've projected it on to others as scapegoats! They have no sympathy for those they scapegoat, only for those they identify with! They depersonalize all others as "infidels, barbarians, heretics" etc. They feel no more qualms about killing these "alien others" than they would about squashing a bug!

When the Roman Christians assumed power during the 4th century AD, after the Roman Emperor Constantine made Roman Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. They took the title and status of God's Chosen People" from the Jews (whom they assumed, somehow no longer deserved them!). And over a long period of time committed just as many or more terrible acts (Genocide, crusades, inquisitions) as "God's Chosen People" in the Old Testament did, using the same rational to justify their behavior!

When Mohammed came to prominence in the 7th Century AD, he too saw himself as God's (Allah's) "Chosen" Prophet with Islam as God's "Chosen" religion and Muslims as God's "Chosen People! He and his successors proceeded to make thousands of "infidels" submit to Islam with the sword in the "Name of God" (Allah)!

Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, the Pharaohs and Kings and Queens of every culture saw themselves as the "Chosen Ones" of God or the Gods (take your pick) and gladly soaked the ground with the blood of a multitude of barbarians" and non-believers as part of their divine appointment!

Hitler with his idea of Aryan supremacy was afflicted with the "Chosen People" complex (mania)! Aryans were so "superior" and "pure" they must "cleanse" the Earth of all non-Aryans! To protect themselves from becoming contaminated by them! Hitler saw himself as an instrument of fate (God) restoring the German people to their former position of glory! Nazism was a religious movement centered around Hitler as the God-Savior of the German people!

Various European states, like the former "British Empire" considered themselves to be God's "Chosen People" doing "God's will" by "Civilizing" and guiltlessly spilling the blood of "primitive peoples" around the globe! Because it was their "Manifest Destiny" to do so! And as was done by they're predecessors, all those they couldn't "Civilize", they exterminated!

The concept of "God's Chosen People" is so divisive, that Christianity has become like a glass broken into a thousand pieces with each piece calling itself the only true piece of glass! I'm surprised that more Christians aren't killing each another (as was done during the 4th century AD or as recently as Northern Ireland) instead they just crucify each another with condescending words!

One of the reasons the United States was founded on the separation of church and state was because the "Founding Fathers" were still within living memory of the terrorist activities of the inquisition, instituted by the Roman Catholic Church, (who commanded the powers of the state at that time)! They wanted to make sure that situation never arose in America, in their lifetimes or after!

But then, we have genocidal policies of United States government during the "Indian Wars" of the 1800s! Of confiscating the land and freedoms of American Indians, making them live in the impoverished conditions of the reservations and the killing those who wouldnt! (Whole tribes were exterminated!)

The rationale given to justify these abuses was that, the Indians were "Savages" who didn't deserve the land, because they didn't work it but only lived off it like animals! While the White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants (God's Chosen People doing God's will) deserved the land because they worked it, developed it and put it to good use! The general attitude toward Indians at that time was summed up in the words of the "Great Indian fighter" and "Civil war hero", General Phil Sheridan, The only good Indian is a dead Indian!"

Similar attitudes were used to justify the enslavement of Africans, who were seen as sub-human and inferior, as being closer to animals than to humans and therefore not deserving of humane treatment or entitled to the rights guaranteed to its citizens by the United States constitution! But whereas Indians were exterminated in large numbers because they were of no economic value to the policies of the day (except for the confiscating of they're lands) Africans were of great economic value! The whole economy of the South ran on the backs of Black slave labor! So the policy was to keep them enslaved rather than exterminate them!

Recently the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden ironically, identifying themselves with "God's Chosen People" (I say ironically because of the age old conflict between the Jews and Moslems) want to "cleanse" Islam and the world of all "infidels, heretics" you and me if we dont agree! Because they're the Only Pure, Holy Ones of God!" and rationalize bombings and other acts of terror as "A Holy War" sanctioned by the Quran and the will of Allah (God)!

Although a lot of the religious violence perpetrated historically has its model in the Old Testament. (At least in the West) The concept of the "Chosen People or Person predates the Old Testament by thousands of years! It runs like a violent thread throughout the history of religion into the dim mists of antiquity and the origins of human motivation! Probably originating in our need to feel special or important (as most of us feel as infants) and culminating in our propensity to organize ourselves into hierarchies, cliques, classes, the haves and the have-nots!

Terrorism and religion go together like a hand in a tightly fitted glove! So the terrorist activities of Bin Laden and the former Taliban aren't anything new! They just have more "modern" ways of killing their "enemies" than their predecessors did in the past!

As long as the concept of "God's Chosen people" isn't attacked and viewed on a global scale as a bad thing! New generations of "God's Chosen People"(kids) will continue to be raised up to commit violent acts against the rest of us under the guise of doing "God's will" for their own misguided selfish gain! Fanatical minds are attracted to this self-serving idea like bees to flowers! It probably allows them to feel important, while simultaneously masking their subconscious feelings of personal impotence!

Thinking that you're "A Chosen or Special Person" is not all bad! As long as you're kind, benevolent and wise, like Albert Einstein, Dr. Martin Luther King, Buddha, Jesus, Apollonius of Tyana, Mother Theresa and others! And as long as you don't think that special-ness gives you the right to usurp the rights of others as you would protest being done to you! Then it's Ok!

The bad thing is no matter how much "Non-Chosen People" accomplish in life. Theyll always be viewed as inferior by "Chosen People" who may be the "scum of the earth" solely because he or she is not part of the "Chosen People's" race, religion or ethnic group! When the only thing that really matters is whether you are a good person or not! Whether you're having a good influence on society or not! Not your race, religion, ethnicity or the achievements of your ancestors! Because to be special in more than just your own mind or in the minds of those who agree with you! You must achieve something "Special" for yourself and mankind today!

If being a "Chosen Person" means using your "Chosen" status to make this life a better place for all of us! I'm all for it! But if not, who needs it!

Peace!

May The Light Never Cease To Lighten Your Minds!

Copyright 2001 El-Veasey Publishing Inc.