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Only at the conclusion of the much promoted Holyfield vs. Tyson Heavyweight Championship fight did I realize the magnitude of the conflict decided that night in the ring. Listening to Holyfield talk after the match, I was unexpectedly assaulted with the p rofoundly unoriginal statement that "My God is the only true God."
While I was at first surprised at the reference, it then suddenly struck me as not so out of place at all. In fact, religion and conflict have gone hand in hand at least since the beginning of recorded history. Moreover, it doesn't take long for one to a ppreciate eleven short rounds of combat between two men as an excellent information-age substitute for millions dead over several centuries of crusading. Perhaps the Israeli's and Palestinian's ought to consider it.
While I don't care to harp on the ongoing and seemingly endless inter-religious conflicts, though it is an incredibly easy subject to do so, I am more concerned with the difficulties of living a life removed from such organized turmoil. In a country where we are free to practice (or not) the religion of our choice, one cannot help but be concerned with the fundamentalist ideologies that are beginning to permeate our educational, entertainment and political culture with increasing frequency.
Of course we had to recognize as soon as the tele-evangelists began to crop up, the day would soon come when mass culture communication would be religion's annoyance of choice. Though, with television and radio stations, internet servers, political lobbyi sts, fifteen-hundred local chapters and 1.5 million members in America, the Christian Coalition and similar organizations have evolved into far more than an irritation.
Such institutions, backed by tremendous money and large voting constituencies, pose a real and serious threat to the social and individual freedoms we enjoy in this country.
As intolerable as an unsolicited visit from the "local church" or a friendly smile on the Mall turning into a fist full of pamphlets can be, I find the courtroom and backroom activities of these groups to be doubly so. Besides the protests, the commercial s and the raving tele-preachers, lawsuits attacking our individual rights have become a favored activity of these mega-cults.
Simply add insult to injury with the fact that despite the multimillion dollar funded socio-political activities these groups participate in, they are free from the taxes and government regulation other large corporations are constrained by.
Hiding behind good intentions and legal protection, the defense of morals in this country seems more about ignorant criticism and personal ax-grinding than truly intelligent and constructive lifestyle guidelines. My understanding is that this has always b een true, the very point that our forefathers saw when drafting the now infamous "separation of church and state" concept.
While their mandate continues to hold against the tide of angry mothers against evolution, it is certainly not due to a lack of resistance. Prayer in schools will be addressed again. So will euthanasia, capital punishment, gambling, drug use, gay rights, pornography, abortion, etc., etc. In this highly evolved and sometimes turbulent world, we are a specie faced with difficult and complicated decisions nearly every day. Is it appropriate that some self- appointed priest-king dictate what solutions are acc eptable without having the slightest appreciation for the individual situation?
Perhaps more pertinent, what is the nature of the human condition that we are incapable of allowing others to live their lives without scorn, ridicule and judgment?
Just like a group of adolescents that have gotten into trouble in the past, religious organizations need to be scrutinized around their intentions regarding social policy. It is simply a matter of minding historical behavior.
In closing, aside from the organizational aspect of religion, I often wonder what kind of personal conviction it takes to deny another person his or her own thoughts, feelings and personal actions based upon a spiritual viewpoint.
While God might be perfect and omnipotent, humans are certainly not. Thus, regardless of beliefs and faith, we are incurably fallible by nature. Since what we believe today will almost positively be untrue in a thousand years, let's avoid insisting that t he world is flat, and let others live their lives, albeit no better, but the way they see fit.
Jason Pyle is an engineering physics senior. His column, 'Critical Point,' appears every other Monday.
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