Where will the competitions end?

What is present in most human interactions? Some of the common occurrences are love, desire, fear, hatred, anger, need and competition.

Competition is there in the desire for improvement in comparison with others. Also present is the need for attention and affection which are usually learnt as a child – from an early age we hone the skills needed to seek and gain these things in our lives. Because people consistently have different points of view there is an ongoing battle for the resources - natural and manufactured - to do better than the next person in order to achieve each one’s personal aim. This means that there will always be conflict.

Is all of life destined to be a competition?

From the cradle to the grave people are competing for something. We live in a competitive world and what we have others want, so they compete for it. Our time, our affiliation, our intelligence; how we vote, study, worship can all become affairs for personal advancement.

American Senator Henry Clay wrote, “Of all human powers operating on the affairs of mankind, none is greater than that of competition”.

21^st century television is awash with shows based on competition: who is fastest, who can last longest, and who has the most, who is biggest, who is smallest, and who can endure the most. It seems that for every human interest there is some contest for supremacy.

How then does humanity decide the differences of religious faith?

Is global terrorism the answer to the competitions of which religion is right, which faith follows the truth, what belief holds sway against the errors of the masses? Will this ultimate competition lead to the end of all contests as humanity destroys each other to prove that their own creed is the basis of light and truth?

How can we cease religious rivalry? Can we cease religious rivalry? Is there only one right way or are there many ways to illumination? Is the only way to answer this found in the annihilation of all opposition? Will there ever be one supreme religious conviction on this earth? Questions continue because the terror continues relentlessly in the name of devotion to one’s belief.

There is no dispute from me … terror in the name of faith is always shown as hostility and destruction, not a demonstration of holy persuasion and love. With religious terror there are no winners. Religious terror is destructive. That competition will never have a winner.