LJ Post 1312581

These are some of the main comments I derived from reading chapter three today.  Always I have been aware of the violence in religious beliefs, and their insanity that has fostered man’s inhumanity to man throughout history, but I was even more informed and saddened by the statement on page 73:  By far the greater part of violence that humans have inflicted on each other is not the work of criminals or the mentally deranged, but of normal, respectable citizens in the service of the collective ego.  I replied to the question in the workbook about the terms religious and spirituality before reading this chapter.  I believe the two terms are mutually exclusive; religion, in my opinion, has no relationship to spirituality, and I felt a bit of confirmation in what this chapter says about it.  Finally, I think the spectacle created by the media of the election campaign is revealed in what I have read so far.  How unfortunate that the media has so thoroughly destroyed a significant part of the democracy, turning the campaign into a duel, making the candidates caricatures, and demonizing them.  The gullible public has latched onto this venom and formed hateful opposing groups, which is the exact opposite of the statement Eckhart attributed to Y. Halevi, "accommodating the competing narrative."  I regret that these candidates have been driven to war against one another instead of respectively presenting their platforms and addressing issues that have import for the country.  This is the "I am right and you are wrong" syndrome.  The process has been damaged, and we may not get the best candidate under these circumstances.  It is our loss as an egoic nation.  Helen M. Earles