The Editor, Sir:

Jamaica land we love is known to have more churches per square mile than most nations on this planet. Jamaica is also known to have more murders per capita than most nations on this planet. I am just concerned that there may be some correlation with the two, given the propensity of religious people to commit murder in the name of God.

For thousands of years, more wars have been fought and more people have died as a result of their religious convictions, than any other single cause. This, I personally find to be revolting and evil.

The symbol that the Christians place at the pinnacle of their religion, is the cross, which speaks of death and suffering; not birth, not joy, not respect, not tolerance, but murder. The promise of a life after death is absolutely a faith-based concept, which has been used to control and enslave societies, with the idea that your suffering here on Earth is worth accepting, as you will be given milk and honey to drink in the life hereafter.

Emancipating ourselves

Our great song writer and poet, Bob Marley, spoke to emancipating ourselves from mental slavery. This was the religious brainwashing that was done to us as African slaves, by the slave masters. He spoke to us saying "that we must look for ours on Earth" as we had been brainwashed to believe that it would come when we were dead.

We, as a people, need to realise that we all must take responsibility for our thoughts, words and deeds and stop looking for forgiveness and salvation on Sunday morning. We are all one species here on Earth, and the purpose of our being here is not to serve God as we have been taught; we are here to guarantee the continuation and survival of our species, the human race. This survival code has been written into the DNA code, and yet, the very first thing the religious warmongers did was to make the act of making a human sinful. In guaranteeing our survival, we must be committed to caring for our children, our neighbours, our environment, and most of all being truthful. Instead of it making sex sinful, would it not have been better to have taught the responsibilities of caring for the results of sex? The importance of educating the children, of this most satisfying and loving act.

Traditions taught by men

We have got it so wrong as a nation and will continue to do so as long as we persist in the traditions taught to us by the religious societies. Where we are today, is because we have put faith in man-made doctrines, such as God made man, when the reality is that man made God to explain the things he can't. We need to question everything we have in the past been taught about religion. We need to practise the things that are written in the DNA code, it is called the golden rule, 'do unto others as you would have done to you'. We need to look at the animal kingdom and their social structures, how they care for their young, how they prepare for their future by storing food for the winter, we need to get back to basics, speak and teach the truth.

Having said this, I am sure that most Christians would now seek to crucify me.

I am, etc.,

ANTHONY MOYSTON

coyabo@rogers.com

Ontario, Canada

Via Go-Jamaica