9/11 Not Possible Without Religion
9/11 Not Possible Without Religion
Written by Vox Populi Sunday, 11 September 2011 23:42
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the September
11th attacks on the United Sates. This year also marks the 40th
anniversary of John Lennon’s most influential song, “Imagine.” Within the lines
of its lyrics, we are invited to imagine no heaven, no hell, and no religion.
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
[…]
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
On the morning in that day on 2001 Americans woke up to confusion. An aviation accident? A Cessna flying too low? But it was moments later that the horror of the situation was revealed as a second passenger plane crashed into a second tower. Followed by the Pentagon. Followed by Pennsylvania.
Some say Al Qaeda hates us because they hate our freedom. Others say that 9/11 was the culmination of a chain reaction of events, stemming from the United States’ involvement in Afghanistan during the Cold War and subsequent “meddling” in the affairs of other Middle Eastern states.
But really, it’s neither of those things. The tragic events of September 11th, 2001 was simply history repeating itself.
Undeniably, history furnishes one example after another of war and killing in the name of religion, from the Christian led crusades in Jerusalem, to Hitler’s attempted extermination of the Jews, to the current conflict in Palestine. 9/11 was no different.
Rational humans don’t strap bombs to their chest and blow themselves up. Rational humans don’t fly planes into buildings, murdering thousands of people. It is therefore safe to assume that those who commit such acts are not rational. Their minds are not clear, and the thing that is clouding them is religion.
In his 1927 book, The Future of an Illusion, Sigmund Freud compared religion to a childhood neurosis; an instinctual self defense mechanism that has arisen from man’s need for protection against the “crushingly superior force of nature;” the same muse that has inspired all of mankind’s innovations.
With Muslim fundamentalists, the power of the United States is an easy substitute for that of nature. With a firm belief in an afterlife, and dogmatic doctrine to reinforce their righteousness, it’s an easy task to not only murder, but to sacrifice one’s own self.
Without religion, fear of the Americans would not have been so easy to sew. Without religion, it’s not so easy to take human lives. Without religion, men are not so willing to sacrifice themselves. Without religion, 2,606 lives in New York City would not have been extinguished, 246 airline passengers would not have died in terror, 125 people at the Pentagon would’ve continued with their daily work, and 19 hijackers would not have been able to be corrupted.
Imagine no religion.