Five Arguments Why The COEXIST Movement For Religions Will Not Work.  



The focus on peaceful coexistence between faiths has sharpened over the last few years. However, we need something more than ecumenical. To be effective a true armistice between faiths must include recognizing one another as divinely valid and with the right of practice. Unfortunately this will not work as it violates the initial condition of any monotheism: my religion is the true and correct religion.

1. To claim the ‘divine stamp of authenticity’ any religious belief system is, by its own alloy, immalleable. Accepting another's religious beliefs or lifestyle gives the acceptor no choice but to compromise or doubt, at some level, the validity of that stamp. Once this occurs the inevitable deconstruction of the belief system begins for the believer. This is an unavoidable consequence that the religious, as a whole, cannot engage in while preserving the divine stamp.



2. Religious belief is for a large majority of our species, culturally born and nurtured. To ask a practicing Roman Catholic from an Irish neighborhood in Boston to not only accept another faith (and one that is disseminated from the Middle East) but also give credence to its divinity violates the theocracy to which Catholics are beholden. It is simply not part of the cultural makeup. In other words, it devalues faith when beliefs and convictions become transferable commodities rather than derivations from their holy book of alleged truth and wisdom. And if we only take the three modern monotheisms into account for this discussion, then two out of the three holy books (Koran, New Testament Bible, Torah) are disavowed in favor of the third.



3. The human is psyche is a dangerous place in which to play these sorts of games. The sense of identity and purpose that can rise in the heart and in the mind when having something to oppose is extremely addictive. It is like two magnets being pushed together against their positively charged surfaces. Without the other to oppose you cannot ‘feel’ or experience a sense power. The same is true of the human condition. Think how many feuds, disagreements, or downright hateful emotions exist between people, institutions, or cultures. This creates a heightened sense of self-importance if backed by a contrived divine charge.



4. George Orwell writes, "A totalitarian state is in effect a theocracy, and its ruling caste, in order to keep its position, has to be thought of as infallible. But since, in practice, no one is infallible, it is frequently necessary to rearrange past events in order to show that this or that mistake was not made, or that this or that imaginary triumph actually happened." What Orwell is pointing out here is not only true but the most demonstrative reason why the COEXIST movement cannot succeed. The admission of fallibility convits the belief system as manmade (emphasis on man not woman). Hence, the believer is faced with admitting that not only their own faith fails this litmus test, but every other monotheism as well. In other words any theocracy is in fact a house of cards built upon a premise of infallibility that simply cannot be true.



5. The belief systems trumpeted by the three monotheisms have neural integration/infection working for them. These alleged holy books, their derived teachings, and the leaders who freight them are able to bore into the areas of the mind where reason and critical thinking should function unmolested. But even the most educated mind can succumb to such molestation and become an instrument of the draconian. At some point we may face 14th century mentalities wielding 21st century weaponry. There can be no allowance for the least bit of tolerance under such circumstances.



The underlying human condition of egocentric tendencies coupled with the narcissistic orientation of monotheism is fertile ground for at best non-tolerance, and at worst apocalyptic violence. The only hope we have is in a secular society whose political and social fabric proactively puts a stop to such destructive and medieval thinking and is itself intolerant of irrational and dangerous beliefs.