Thoughts on Teddy Bears and Religious Beliefs

Yesterday was one of those intellectual "perfect storms" that drop a wonderful blogging topic into my lap in more depth than I could ever muster on my own. Let me share these cascading thoughts with you.

The first item was the news report from Sudan (of all garden spots) about a British teacher arrested and facing a potential sentence of prison, a fine, or 40 lashes for "blasphemy" and "insulting religion." Her crime was allowing her students, as part of a lesson on animals and their habitats, to name a teddy bear "Mohammed." Another report indicated that it was one of the students, not the teacher, who suggested the name, but the teacher is being charged nevertheless.

The second item was a blog post on this topic from The Reality-Based Community titled "On the Apparent Fragility of Moslem Faith," in which the author noted that millions of Muslims are named Mohammed, and notes that "Naming an infant Muhammad runs a finite and non-trivial risk of thus naming a criminal or otherwise really bad person, as some kids are always sure to turn out. Aren't these bad apples a lot more dangerous to the reputation of the original than a stuffed bear, especially a stuffed bear a bunch of seven-year-olds were trying to honor?"

The third item was a wonderful post from John Hill at his blog Out of My Hat, titled "Have It Your Way." This post doesn't address the terrible injustice being perpetrated in the Sudan, but it does discuss - in John's clear and compelling fashion - the tendency of people to want to have their religion "their way," to believe that they know and understand the mind of God and are thus justified in taking actions, however terrible, in His name. John writes that, "Unfortunately, there is much done in the name of God, or in the cause of religion that is wrong. We can do what we want, say it is God's will and convince others and ourselves that everything is okay."

Charles Kimball, Professor of Religion at Wake Forest University and a distinguished scholar of comparative religion with specialization in Islamic studies, published a book a few years ago titled When Religion Becomes Evil, in which he postulated five signs that religious belief has been corrupted and turned to evil:

1. Claims of absolute truth;
2. Insistence on blind obedience;
3. Establishing the "Ideal" time;
4. The end justifies any means; and
5. Declaring holy war.

Dr Kimball notes that belief in God and adherence to a particular religion per se are not the issue: the twisting of that belief and adherence to violent and ungodly ends is. We can see this in the warped and deadly versions of Islam which will condemn a teacher for naming a teddy bear, sentence a young woman to jail and flogging for the "crime" of being raped, or churn out hundreds of suicide bombers convinced they are doing God's will.

Take a few minutes and visit Out of My Hat, and read John's post to which I linked above. Then think about how much better the world would be if we could all take this simple and clear-eyed view.

It's a good dream.

Have a good day. Act out the Golden Rule. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo