Evangelical Christians who follow the Bible’s written word believe that non-believers will be destroyed in the Rapture — the last coming of Christ — in the Holy Land at the end of times. That can’t be especially good news for Arabs and Jews who live there and follow different faiths.
Similarly for those that decry fundamentalist Muslims, or the Zionist movement, or atheism, capitalism, communism, socialism, liberalism, authoritarianism, and so on.
You get the point, surely, that every particular perspective has an opposing one. This is illustrated daily in the boiling over of political differences, racial conflicts, and religious beliefs — all of which are conveniently digitally archived for posterity in the even that we successfully destroy each other completely.
It’s not much use, in the end, for one side of any argument to defend it to death, though this appears to be precisely the method used to safeguard deeply held beliefs.
To assign one viewpoint with the measure of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ also stubbornly defies classification as everything is somehow tinged with a bit of one or the other.
Retelling the Sufi tale of the red snapper, God chose to give the seasoned fisherman no catch and abundantly rewarded the novice, for no man be so good that he is not tainted with evil nor so evil without also having in him some good. Some are thus rewarded with temporal gains.
How then to find harmony in chaos; a pleasant tune within cacophony, and peace within this madness. Just as fire will feed fire, discord will not dissolve from dispute.
The soothing balm, of course, is love, compassion, empathy. If frequency of consciousness rises, then any viewpoint — no matter how diametrically opposed, is equally tempered with concern.
Service to others is simply the expression of the care, sympathy, tenderness and mercy that one shows to oneself being projected upon someone else.
Ironically, it is infinitely harder to realize one’s own desires than work towards collective goals. And, it must be said, very few among us are gifted with the maniacal obsession it takes to convert an individual distortion of reality into a collective one. Those having done so have not been kindly regarded by history.
We are all capable of selflessness, and the consistent application of this practice by even equal amounts is the difference between the progression or regression of our collective consciousness.
If it sounds like one’s own actions in favor of service to self or others is imperceptible in influence on humankind’s collective hive-mind, then take this solace that it will at least relieve your own discomfort.
Yes, it is absolutely so; simply acting in service to others will remove the anxiety, pain and anguish that is required to preserve your devoutly held proclivities.
This is because the energy required to maintain your own belief systems is immense, and therefore the measures you take upon to do so are often extreme.
Loosen your grip over this inclination and just see how viral it goes. One pandemic may have shut us down physically but the other will open us up spiritually.