Hong Kong Liberal Religious Forum

The subtitle of an article in the latest issue of TIME (Vol 174, No 3, July 27, 2009) struck me. The title reads "Two Views of the Land", the subtitle "Some Israeli settlers think they are doing God's work. Palestinians think they are thieves."

What happened? Why some who think they are working for God are regarded as thieves by others? The turmoil in the West Bank and Gaza has been troubling the Middle East, if not the world, for decades and needs no repetition here. What I am interested in is why some people go into wars for God? The answer could be simple: if the God you believe in has been intelligently designed and created by human to serve one purpose---war! And the Jewish and Christian God Jehovah (YHWH) is such a God.

I am not saying that there is no God or the real God (if exists) loves wars, but the Gods some tribes have created are warrior Gods---made for helping them fight wars---and the God of the Old Testament (OT) is one of them. The God portrayed in the OT has preferential favor for the tribe (Hebrews) which created Him, makes covenant with them, and helps them fight surrounding tribes and even countries. When you believe in such a God and learn the exclusivist and militant attitudes in His holy book, you tend to fight wars. This may be the real reason behind the cultural wars over evolution, homosexuality, abortion, and even other religions.

If you read the Bible carefully, you might be able to find three or more Gods, the warrior God of the OT, the compassionate God of Jesus, and the dogmatic God of Paul. This should be of no surprise. If human create Gods in their own image, different humans create different Gods. For us today, it is important to choose the right God to worship (or worship none), for if you choose a warrior God, you admire wars, if you choose a compassionate God, you admire compassion. Choose a nice God, not the naughty one. If everybody does so, the world would be a better world.