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People cause their own suffering

Dear sir,
Religion emerged as a result of human beings trying to explain what no-one is in a position to explain – that is where do we come from and where does the universe come from. We try to explain what will happen after death or why we are here.
Science does not provide us with sufficient, credible answers because science has limits! To close the knowledge-vacuum, humans invented religion since the day they started to think consciously.
The many mistakes made by humans since evolution, were blamed on religion. However, in all cases where Christianity failed us, it was because humans corrupted their religious beliefs. ‘Corrupt’ humans repeatedly corrupted the true word of Jesus Christ. As I do not know the other religions well enough I cannot speak up for them too, but I do guess that with them it is not very different. This is to be expected because humans ‘run’ all the religions, they run the institutions we call ‘churches’. Is it different with the political ideologies of our world, we must now ask.
All the different secular ideologies failed us badly because the human character dominated, managed and corrupted them after some time. We cannot call one of the non-religious ideologies successful and sustainable. Even capitalism, which was rather successful for a tiny minority, seems to be dying out. This is evidenced by the state of our world – the percentage of people who suffer, who are hungry and without any hope. Religions give hope, not ideologies.
Dear reader, try to imagine humanity without religion! Humans are what they are and what they have been forever; humans have never been saints; humans evolved out of the most successful predator on earth without changing much until today! What improved is their predatory efficiency. However, since about 2 000 years ago, humanity got the direct message of universal love and this message gives us hope that something will change some day!
The message ‘love your neighbour and love your enemy’ did not immediately turn the world into paradise because we are too ‘human’ for that. However, no secular ideology lived as long as this Christian belief lived. No secular ideology could turn our attention to our neighbour’s wellbeing and to “us” but rather to “me, myself and I”. This was done by the message of Jesus Christ only, and we who believe, believe he is the Son of God. But what do those have who believe in nothing, or in themselves? Do they and their ideologies really have results – better results than the different religions have? An honest answer would go a long way!
Otto I.
Swakopmund

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