The belief, or faith in a God or Gods, a higher power or a guiding strength is not the cause of religious violence, it is instead the belief in the righteousness of one's doctrine over another that forces people to attack those of differing beliefs.

I differ from Sam Harris in his book ‘The End of Faith’ where he proclaims the virtues of reason over 'faith without evidence', and see's the faith of those that believe in God or Gods as the problem that causes the violent acts of those belonging to these religious orders. I see the guiding doctrine as the problem, not the goal of finding a higher level in one’s life. This could include being at one with God, or Allah, or finding nirvana. Faith in there being something more to life than reason is one of the most beautiful elements of humanity.

The problem is that finding this higher level (being) is very difficult, and I believe it is an individual journey that one must partake through their own experiences, and that what is found does differ from one individual to another, in other words everybody’s god is different. In this search for our own higher level it is natural for us to want to learn from others, as we would when trying to discover anything new, its akin to reading a guide book before visiting a new country. So we seek out those we think have found God (or a higher level) and try to follow their path to this higher level. Therein lie’s another problem; one won’t succeed in finding one’s own ‘God’ but will believe one is at least on the right path.

How though does this search for one’s higher level develop into a situation where whole peoples are willing to slaughter others in the name of there Faith? Imagine this…

You go on a journey, say to India or to the Snowy mountains, or a vast desert and cloister your self of from civilization, the day to day hassles of work and family, the socialising with friends and the humdrum of survival. You take with you some simple questions, what is the purpose of my life? Is there something more than to be born and to die? And how can I avoid suffering and find peaceful happiness?

In this isolation you ponder these questions and after many months you return to civilization a different person. You have found your answers and those who knew you before see the change within you, you smile all day, want for little, speak in a peaceful knowledgeable way, and seem to all to have been touched by something greater, you have found the higher level. And eventually those around you ask of what you found, but the language you speak seems inadequate to describe what you have found, so you speak in abstracts, of the kingdom of heaven, of higher beings, of a shining light in a dark world. And they listen. And soon those around you want what you have found, they want to be like you, they want this peace and fulfillment you have found.

Those that you have spoken to start to tell others of you, of how you live, what you wear, what you eat, of where you went to find this peace, and soon others start to copy what you have done, and they believe they have also found a peaceful nature a higher level, but of course they can never know exactly what you found, exactly what you felt, and it is unlikely they ever find exactly what you did.

Over generations you pass from this Earth and so do those that knew you when you were living, now the knowledge of you and what you found is only kept alive by those that now act as they have been told by their forebears that you did, those that follow the teaching of those first to hear your words when you returned from your journey. These stories are past from Father to son from Mother to daughter from people to peoples, and they change, things are added, rules are expanded upon, and perhaps the power of using your name empowers others to use it to influence others for their own ends.

As time passes these rules, and stories of you are written down, they become the guiding book in how to find a higher life, a higher existence, they become the guide to life. The desert or mountain you visited becomes a place of worship. The place where you died becomes a shrine, the people you first told of your discovery becomes as special as you yourself and their actions and deeds also become sacred. The followers of this book become millions in their number and the book itself is believed to be in itself special.

Of course you were not the first nor the last to look for answers to these questions, your popularity is proof that all people seek these answers, and you were not the only one to find the answers, for there have been many, and some in lands other than yours also went into history and were written of and gave birth to multitudes of followers, and each of these peoples believed that there’s was the true path to finding the higher being…

If the most important thing in the world, so important it was even not of this world, was threatened by another, the path to finding a higher level was to be interrupted, the place where you believed you felt closest to finding this higher level was to be taken from you, this would be worse than loosing life itself, for the purpose of life was being taken from you. Your doctrine questioned, your places of worship stolen, even doubt placed on the existence of the first to find the higher level. The prop of your existence would be taken from you and life would become meaningless. In this situation it is possible to do the most evil of deeds, and throughout history they have been.

What of course the followers of you missed was that you did not follow a doctrine to find this higher level you did the opposite you left all that could influence you, so you could find peaceful, individual contemplation. Just you, the world and your questions and from this you found the answers.

This is just a possible way that people could be mislead into doing evil in the name of the ultimate meaning, the search and belief in a higher purpose to life, which is a wonderful thing, but to try and find it down someone else’s path I think is impossible and can lead to the most horrid actions a human being is capable of.

I hope that people will not abandon spirituality for reason but instead put faith in themselves to find there own guiding force, and not in the old books of others.