Je suis Charlie. It’s time we all grew up.

A few days ago twelve Parisians were gunned down for expressing an opinion. They were executed in the name of Allah, the Arabic word for God. These Al Kaida and ISIS characters have given themselves the right to kill anyone who doesn’t worship their god the way they like. Just a few years ago Protestants and Catholics were killing each other in Northern Ireland because they didn’t like each other’s version of their religion. 

In America where religion abounds no one can hope to advance politically without constantly saying “God bless America”. I wonder what Native Americans think of that. The Christian Europeans didn’t bring them much blessing. Each religionist believes passionately that his religion is the truest expression of God’s reality and will. And so Muslims kill Jews, Jews kill Muslims, Christians kill Jews, and Muslims kill Christians, and so on and so on and so on. Isn’t it time we gave religion a rest? I’m serious. It’s done enough harm. I know, atheism didn’t work out too well in the USSR. And yes, we still have this nut-case running an atheist prison camp called North Korea. But there’s got to be some better way for the future folks. 

I’ve just read Edward O. Wilson’s latest book The Meaning of Human Existence (2014). Wilson is a famous biologist and professor emeritus at Harvard University. In this book he makes a convincing case that because of the way our brains have evolved we have an built-in conflict in our natures tied up with strong tribalism producing strong group loyalty and willingness to sacrifice for one’s own people; but also a tendency to mistrust the other, the foreigner, the other race, the other tribe, the other religion.

Because of this fierce loyalty to one’s tribal religion, and because of our basic fear of death and all the unanswered questions, otherwise well-educated people still believe in the most absurd stories and claims handed down to them in their religion. In 1950, centuries after it was proven that we live on a ball hurtling through space, Pope Pius XII announced ex cathedra i.e. infallibly, that Jesus’ mother Mary had in fact ascended into heaven about 1900 years earlier, (not that Pius had been there to witness it of course). Perhaps Jesus, who incidentally had performed the same trick a few years earlier, had swept into orbit in his private spaceship and picked her up. At the time of Pius’ announcement, one prominent biologist commented that at about 30,000 feet poor Mary would have passed out. At this point if you’re not overly religious you might be having a chuckle. But others will be offended at me making light about these revered religious people and stories. And that in the end is why several of the staff of Charlie Hebdo magazine were gunned down in Paris. It’s time we all grew up. We’re on our own on a lonely planet, facing some serious challenges concerning climate, population, water, food etc. We need to leave our tribalism behind and work together across the world. And yes, it starts with me.