Religion continues its path of tragedies

When one of the ISIS radicals said that his organization will use tanks to install and enforce Sharia law, religion in its primeval state continued to demonstrate the bold ugliness of the dark side of humanity. For thousands of years, religious divergence in its fanatical observance by extremists has resulted in more deaths and devastation in recorded history than all other causes of life ending warfare and conflict.

All major religions since the dawn of civilization have maimed and murdered millions to rid the world of supposed unbelievers, heretics and blasphemers. In the Middle East, Sunnis war against Shiites. In the border between India and Pakistan, the disputed region of Kashmir has been in an undeclared war since these two countries became separate nations.

Until recently, Northern Protestant Ireland was at war with the Irish Catholic Free State since its partition early in the 20th century. In this country the religious right has had a cultural war with the religious left, influencing definitive cultural customs and politics, stringently dividing the country.

Isn't it time to give secularism a chance? Can we finally learn the lessons being taught today in the Middle East, to give new life to the First Amendment, the constitutional separation of church and state designed to thwart another theocracy? Or will we continue to invoke the prophecies in the Bible and bring on our own apocalypse?

James D. Cook

Schaumburg