Imagining a being that possesses superior abilities which he/she uses to grant the human that imagined it almost everything it asks for, is a universal trait that is shared by all human beings regardless of their ethnicity or religious affiliation.
Thus, from
the gods of the ancient world who may not have always been cooperative to the
more modern genies who proved to be models of obedience and cooperation, human
beings created the perfect or near-perfect companions who travelled with them
through the thick and thin of life’s joys and travails.
In time, most
societies were able to differentiate between the mythologies they inherited
from the ancients, and the religions that were revealed to them by individuals
who apparently came out of nowhere. These newcomers convinced the multitude
around the globe that there was only one all-powerful being called God, and explained
that He selected them to preach His gospel to the human race.
However,
despite the tracing of a demarcation line between mythology and religion, some
people seem to confuse the two while others believe in the literal expression
of the religious or mythological texts. Aside from that, no one that was given
a religious upbringing can make the claim they are completely free of the
religious influence in which they were steeped when growing up.
You can
detect this reality when studying the article which came under the title: “Restoring
deterrence should be America’s most urgent task in 2024,” written by Clifford
D. May and published on December 26, 2023 in The Washington Times. What follows
is a passage in the article, here reproduced in condensed form, telling much
about what motivates the author. Here is the passage:
“A lesson Americans should have learned: It’s perilous to underestimate
the capabilities of your adversaries and overestimate your own. If we’d learned
this lesson, our most urgent priority now would be to restore deterrence. That
would require not just maintaining our military and economic powers but
increasing them to the point where our adversaries cannot hope to match them. In
other words, there’s no substitute for Pax Americana. It’s that for which we
should hope, pray and vote in the new year”.
As can be seen, while acknowledging that America is facing adversaries,
Clifford May goes on to ignore the way they will most certainly react to his
recommendation that America “increase its military and economic powers to the
point where our adversaries cannot hope to match them.” Well then, this is how
religious devotees think, and what they murmur when they get down on their
knees and pray to the Almighty that they be granted a miracle.
And if the
Almighty does not respond to the prayer, will a genie that was kept in a bottle
for centuries come to substitute, and grant America the military and economic
powers she will deny to the adversaries? This being the scenario that Clifford May
seems to suggest can be realized, is he out there combing the beaches of America
looking for the bottle that’s housing the genie of his imagination?
Whatever
the case may be, to end his article, Clifford May leaned once again against his
religious upbringing and wrote the following:
“If history teaches anything, it’s that peace is not the natural state
of humankind. It can be achieved only when a greater power deters bellicose
actors. In other words, there’s no substitute for Pax Americana. It’s that for
which we should hope, pray and vote in the new year”.
Having ignored the reality that America’s adversaries will respond in
kind when they see America increase its military power, Clifford May repeats
the same suggestion, but says it using different words and a different approach.
Here it is:
“Peace is not the
natural state of humankind. It can be achieved only when a greater power deters
bellicose actors”.