Once in a while there appears a word or phrase so overused it becomes virtually obnoxious. At present, for this writer at least, the latest word is “antisemitism.”
After the appalling October 7th attack by Hamas on innocent Israelis, world sympathy for Israel reached a peak. It took a nose-dive in the hearts of many at the cold-blooded revenge meted out by the Israeli government on innocent Palestinians.
Social media took sides and yelled at each other, as always.
Western governments, who should know better, debated new rules to strengthen laws already in place to curb the so-called “antisemitism,” of people peacefully marching in support of innocent Palestinians in Gaza.
“Anti-Semitic?” What exactly does this word mean? Most definitions state simply: “a prejudice against or hatred of Jews.”
So what are Jews? Again, definitions clarify: ” a member of the Semitic people who claim descent from the ancient Hebrew people of Israel, are spread throughout the world, and are linked by cultural or religious ties. 2. a person whose religion is Judaism.”
The Semitic people claim to be descended from Shem, the son of Noah. Genesis 11.10 states that Shem lived to be 600 years old. Either years were much shorter back then, or Shem was a Superman!
The second definition is perhaps a little less complex: the religion of Judaism. Religions can be fascinating, if only for the huge numbers of human creatures who believe in one of them. Some estimates suggest there are around 4,000 differing religions around the world. Most of them fall into one of five categories: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism or Judaism.
Each is totally dependent on one common factor: the existence of a God, Gods, or some form of omnipotent power “out there” somewhere in the ether. A power responsible for the creation of the human creatures, whose main attribute is a need to kill, maim and torture it’s fellows.
It’s also weirdly strange that most of that killing, maiming and torturing occurs between members of different religious groups. They fight over whose religion is the right one. Either that, or a common scenario reveals members of the same religious group fighting one another, each staunchly believing the God of their religion is on their side and not that of the other.
It does seem that the human creature this God, Gods, or omnipotent power created is a very flawed being indeed. It could also indicate that the creator is as flawed as its creation.
Or maybe there’s another explanation? Perhaps the God, Gods, or omnipotent power supposedly responsible for creating the human creatures is flawed because it doesn’t exist. It is merely a figment of the human creature’s egotistical imagination. Could it be that the actual creator of the human creature was really this thing called “evolution” and the human creature is just a product of four and a half billion years of evolution from primitive, single-celled, life-forms that lived in the ancient seas?
Which, in a rather convoluted way, brings everything back to that one recently overused word, “Antisemitism.”
If there is no God, Gods, or omnipotent power, and the human creatures are all one family evolved from the planet’s early life forms, then religion is a lie, a make-believe. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism can all be consigned to the dustbin of history. Words like “antisemitism” would cease to exist, along with one of the major reasons the human creatures kill, maim, and torture each other.
Of course, being the weirdly illogical creatures they are, there’s no guarantee they’d not find other excuses to do so.