Why We Should Love Osama Bin Laden
by Jamie Venes
What is the opposite of love? Is it hatred? Some people claim that the opposite of love is fear – not hatred. But I believe the opposite of love is really less than that. I believe the opposite of love is indifference. I say this because I believe there is evidence that hatred is actually love – distorted. Logically, one must first know and love a person before they can truly hate them. If one has never known and loved the person before, how can they really hate them? My answer is that their hated is out of ignorance. I believe that to really hate Osama Bin Laden, for example, is to be indifferent to him. It is not logical to hate someone you don’t personally know and love. Some people say that Bin Laden is an evil man. For various reasons, I don’t agree. I believe the evidence shows that evil does not really exist – only distorted goodness. Although I believe that Bin Laden should be captured and imprisoned, I believe that we should love the man as we should love everyone – unconditionally. This article will present the case why we should believe that Bin Laden is not evil and why we should love him – even pray for him. To lay down the logical foundation for your obligation to love Bin Laden unconditionally (even if he is cutting your head off while you are loving him unconditionally), I want to begin with some quotes from some great thinkers which are related to this discussion. Here they are:
The Term Paper on Combatting Terrorism Final Bin Laden
Q 1 The focus of what we consider "modern terrorism" has changed dynamically in just thirty years. Though exceptions always apply, there has been a general trend from left-wing domestic groups toward right-wing international groups as the prevalent form of terrorism. This transformation is further characterized by a movement from the secular to the radical, the domestic to the international, and ...
“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.” – Socrates
“One may say that evil does not exist for subjective man at all, that there exist only different conceptions of good. Nobody ever does anything deliberately in the interests of evil, for the sake of evil. Everybody acts in the interests of good, as he understands it. But everybody understands it in a different way. Consequently men drown, slay, and kill one another in the interests of good.” – Gurdjieff
“Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow. It has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.” – Shakti Gawain
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was sitting in a doctor’s office watching television when, to my horror, the planes slammed into the World Trade Towers in New York City causing them to collapse and kill thousands of innocent people. I watched the whole thing live. I could hardly believe what I was watching or believe that such a thing could even happen. It felt like Armageddon or the end of the world. How could anyone do such a horrible and cruel thing? What makes people do such things?
Many people, Americans in particular, have expressed an opinion similar to the idea that Bin Laden is nothing more than a murderous dog who needs to be caught and destroyed. He certainly fits the description of what some Christians would call “the anti-Christ” – the embodiment of Satan on Earth who persecutes the saints. We might even find it incredible that there is anyone on Earth who actually has any feelings of love for him. But common sense tells us that there are people who do love him – even if it is only his mother. One must certainly conclude that God loves Bin Laden unconditionally. In my opinion, the best source of understanding this kind of love (unconditional) comes from near-death experiences. People who have been in the very presence of God and have returned, often describe a realization that they experience in the light of a “one-ness” of all things. This is the realization that all of humanity is actually a single organism – a single soul. It is the realization that everyone is a manifestation of one God. This would partly explain why so many religions teach a philosophy that when we do to others, we do to ourselves and God. For this reason, our first step toward learning to love Osama Bin Laden unconditionally is to acknowledge that he is a part of God in the same way that all of us are a part of God. We are all connected as one. Hating Bin Laden is really hating ourselves and hating God. This also means that whenever Bin Laden kills someone, he is killing not just them, but himself and God.
The Essay on God vs. Evil
God, like Adam and Eve, suffered consequences. Genesis 3:14-17, God says: “Because you did this…” referring to the serpent who tempted Eve, then to Eve, and finally to Adam, “Because you did…” Humankind invited the existence of Evil into the goodness of God’s creation. No longer did God walk in the breeze of the Garden of Eden; no longer did God remain in the actual presence of humankind. No ...
Is it evil to kill God? I am going to show that killing God is not “evil” – it is ignorant. I am also going to show that there is no “evil” – that people make mistakes by being ignorant. There is a good and higher reason why Bin Laden is murdering innocent people. I make this claim based upon the “higher knowledge” brought back by those who have had a near-death experience. Here are some of their insights:
There really is no sin as it is known in the world. The only thing that has any meaning in the spirit world is what we think. The very core of our being is perfect love and light. (Jayne Smith)
There is no evil in any human soul. It is the lack of love that distorts people. We are designed by God to self-correct, just like the rest of the universe. No one is lost because everyone is already saved. (Mellen-Thomas Benedict)
Howard Storm was given the following insights from beings of light after his life review when he was fearful of returning to earth life and afraid he would make mistakes again: Mistakes are an acceptable part of being human. We are here to make all the mistakes we want because it is through our mistakes that we learn. As long as we try to do what we know to be right, we will be on the right path. If we make a mistake, we should fully recognize it as a mistake, then put it behind us and simply try not to make the same mistake again. The important thing is to try our best, keep our standards of goodness and truth, and not compromise them to win people’s approval. God loves us just the way we are, mistakes and all. When we make a mistake, we should ask for forgiveness. After that, it would be an insult if we don’t accept that we are forgiven. We shouldn’t continue going around with a sense of guilt, and we should try not to repeat our mistakes. We should learn from our mistakes. God wants us to do what we want to do. That means making choices – and there isn’t necessarily any right choice. There are a spectrum of possibilities, and we should make the best choice from those possibilities. If we do that, we will receive help from the Other Side. (Rev. Howard Storm)
The Term Paper on Why People Love the Villain: A Synthesis Essay
The Joker, Batman’s nemesis, is far from a golden example of good. In fact, he’s more of a madman out to watch the world burn as he causes chaos, which he calls “justice”. And even though he is evil and madness incarnate, there’s still a place for him in people’s minds under the category of awesome. From the show Supernatural, the fallen angel, Lucifer enjoys torturing, ...
Near-death accounts reveal that God’s love for us is not a passive kind of love that sits idly by and watches humans destroy the world and everyone in it. The evidence suggests that although God does not want people to kill each other, God permits it for the purpose of instruction and soul growth. Such evidence suggests that unconditional love is a “tough” love.
God’s overriding desire is to purify the darkness of our souls, irrespective of the suffering it puts us through to achieve that end. If we learn to accept our situations in life, instead of fighting it, then our suffering is greatly minimized. (Daniel Rosenblit)
Ned Dougherty once lived a very unspiritual and hedonistic life. In the middle of attempting to murder his business partner, Dougherty had a heart attack and a NDE. He saw the light of God and felt God’s embrace and love – a love greater than any love he had ever known. Spiritual beings began cheering him and conveying their loving encouragement and support. They cheered: “You are doing wonderfully. We are here to support you. Continue to do good work, and we will help you. You are part of us, and we are part of you. We stand ready to come to your aid when you need us, and you will. Call us. Beckon us. We will flock to you when the time comes!” Ned was confused by all the attention because there wasn’t anything wonderful about the way he had conducted his life. He thought, “How can I be doing wonderfully? I almost killed someone tonight. Could I be justified in what I tried to do?” (Ned Dougherty)
The Essay on People often complain about life in the U.S.
People complain when most of their needs are not met. The irony of it lies when complaints are just piled up without any further insights on how to solve such problems. In the long run, complaints become a part of the lifestyle of people who are good at pointing at the loopholes most especially of the government, and of the leaders. As there would always be a reason for every action that is done, ...
“I’m sure that I asked the question that had been plaguing me since childhood about the sufferings of my people (i.e., Jews and the Holocaust).
I do remember this: There was a reason for everything that happened, no matter how awful it appeared in the physical realm. And within myself, as I was given the answer, my own awakening mind now responded in the same manner: “Of course,” I would think, “I already know that. How could I ever have forgotten!” (Beverly Brodsky)
From these and a multitude of other NDE insights, I conclude that people such as Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden are NOT “evil” men. This is because evil does not exist – only ignorance. There is no “sin” – only mistakes made out of ignorance. If “evil” is really ignorance, the people such as Bin Laden should be considered retarded.
Those born with mental or physical afflictions are more spiritually advanced than others, born to help others evolve spiritually. (Sandra Rogers)
I saw that the handicapped and mentally retarded people – the ones at whom I had once laughed at – were exalted above the masses of people because they were humble and innocent. (Daniel Rosenblit)
Some of what we souls down here consider the worst of us are actually teachers. A handicapped person is a very, very, high teacher. People who suffer greatly come down here to teach the rest of us. (Darlene Holman)
The angel – I don’t know what else to call her – said that life is an endless cycle of improvements and that humans are not perfect yet. She said that most people have this secret revealed to them when they die, but that handicapped children often know this and endure their problems without complaining because they know that their burdens will pass. Some of these children, she said, have even been given the challenge of teaching the rest of us how to love. It stretches our own humanity to love a child who is less than perfect,” said the angel. “And that is an important lesson for us.” (Dr. Frank Oski)
It would not take a great leap of logic to conclude that people such as Bin Laden have a mental handicap. It is common knowledge in the science of criminology that many serial killers have a dysfunctional frontal lobe of the brain. Some serial killers have already been defended in court with the “My brain made me do it” defense. We should probably think of all criminals, serial killers, and mass murders as mentally handicapped people who are actually, on a higher level, “powerful spiritual beings” like the rest of us. Having this kind of attitude toward such people makes it easier to love them unconditionally. How can anyone hate a retarded person? Isn’t it much easier to love and sympathize with them – even while they are cutting your head off. Jesus did. While on the cross he said, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” This should be our attitude toward those people who are so mentally challenged that they are willing to butcher innocent people.
The Term Paper on Findleys God Noah Gods People
... that designation experiences God and illustrates Gods character. Centrifugally Jesus is still alive, living in people, as well as independently. Whether Jesus is metaphorically ... eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil (3: 5). Eve decides to disobey and then ... been due to a law relationship with God. Jesus and the covenant of love, mercy, grace had not yet arrived. In ...
There are qualities within us which people call “good” and goodness certainly does exists. “Evil” then is just the absence of good – the nonexistence of goodness. In the same way, we define ignorance as the lack of knowledge or forgetfulness as the lack of memory. They have no real existence on their own. For example, some snakes are extremely poisonous to humans. Does this mean that snakes are “evil” because they bite and kill us? Of course not. Their fangs and poison are their way of defending themselves and this is a “good” thing. As regards to themselves, they are “good.” Our bodies are sometimes invaded by a virus for which the antibodies within us fight and destroy them. We cannot say that these viruses are “evil.” Nor can we say that our bodies are “evil” for fighting and destroying them.
By demonstrating how something considered to be “evil” is actually, in of itself, not evil, then we have proven that evil does not exist.
It is written in the Bible that God created all things and it was “good.” It is also written that God created the light and the darkness. There is even a Bible verse which declares that God created “evil” (Isaiah 45:7).
Darkness is merely the absence of light. Light is an existing thing. But darkness is not something that exists in of itself. We can also say that love is an existing thing, but hatred is merely the absence of love. In other words, hatred is really a nonexistent thing – a nonexistent “power” unto itself. Hatred is the condition where there is an absence of love. In the same way, we can say that love never hurts. It is the absence of love that hurts.
The Essay on Existence Of God People World Exist
"If God did not exist, would it be necessary to invent him?" This question deals with the necessity of God himself. It asks us to imagine that there is no knowledge about any superhuman being, such as God. It makes me think about weather or not we would be inclined to want something like God. I am forced to think of how important God is in my own life, and how important God is in the rest of the ...
“Good” people must sometimes kill other people. It may be in self-defense or to protect the lives of their family. We slaughter all kinds of plants and animals for food and clothes and this certainly is not “evil”. Nor should killing innocent people be considered “evil.” Killing people unjustly is just plain stupid and retarded. This is because it is equivalent to killing God or unjustly killing yourself. Also there is the principle of “whatever goes around, comes around.” Bin Laden is not to be hated or feared. He is to be greatly pitied and greatly helped. And he must be stopped – for his sake and everyone else’s.
Hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural catastrophes unmercifully kill multitudes of people and destroy billions of dollars worth of property every year. We don’t call nature “evil”. Many people refer to such things as “acts of God.” Some day in the future, the entire world might be in danger of being destroyed by a killer asteroid or comet. Ultimately, the whole universe may end someday as it began – with a violent explosion of unimaginable destruction.
Ultimately, there really is no such thing as “good” either. There is only God and a multitude of manifestations of God. The Bible declares that life is God (John 14:6; John 1:3-4; Col.1:17, 1 John 5:20).
This is perhaps the most important doctrine of mysticism and it is found in so many religions. It means that all is one and separation is the grand illusion – the big lie. The idea of the one-ness of all things has been called the one “true religion,” and the Truth behind all religions. In the same way, there really is no “death” because life and “death” are one and the same. Death is just another aspect of life.
Taoism is the most explicit declaration of the concept of one-ness. There is only the Tao. Yin and Yang, however, are the illusion of separation and reality of unification. All religious paths should lead people back to this one-ness (i.e., God).
Hindus seek a “yogi” to accomplish this. The word “yogi” means to yoke. The yogi seeks to yoke the individual soul (atman) to the universal soul (Brahman).
Jesus taught, “I am in you, just as the Father is in me. Therefore the Father is also in you.” Here Jesus is saying that we all share the same soul – the soul of God. In Judaism, it is written that God made man in his image and breathed life into him. In Islam, the path to one-ness is called “submission” where a person must submit to the will of God. This means joining your will with the will of God and acting as God would act. Unfortunately, Bin Laden is not acting as God would act and many Muslims are aware of it. One can even say that Bin Laden is “God acting ignorantly.” In the same way, fanatical Christians who bomb abortion clinics and kill innocent people are not acting as Jesus would act. Such people give Christianity a bad name in the same way that Bin Laden is giving Islam a bad name. Evil does not exist. It is only ignorance.
For adherents to the Middle Eastern religions, the story of Adam and Eve is the lesson about the origin of humanity’s distinction between what is “good” and what is considered “evil.” This belief of a separation of reality between good and evil is what makes people believe they are separated from God. In the Book of Genesis, God is referred to as “Elohim” – the gods. The Elohim said, “Let us make man in our image.” In the Garden stood the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” The Bible states that God created humans without the knowledge of a separation between good and evil – nor of a knowledge of a separation between God and man. Then the “snake” (the Biblical symbol for wisdom) appeared before Adam and Eve and led them to think that they would “become LIKE God” if they ate from the Tree of knowledge. But Jesus revealed that we did not “become LIKE God.” Jesus declared that we ARE Gods (John 10:30-36) which means that we are one with God and a part of God – not separate. This shows that the real “sin” (mistake) is believing that you are “LIKE God” – that you are separate from God – when in reality you are “one with God” or “you are Gods.” Then when Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge, the Elohim declared, “The man has now become LIKE one of us. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the Tree of life and eat, and live forever.” In other words, Adam and Eve erroneously believed they were separated from God and no longer united with God. Had they received more knowledge from the Tree, they would have received eternal life (i.e., they would never have become subjected to reincarnation).
So instead they were banished from the Garden and subjected to death and rebirth.
Of course, this story of the Garden of Eden is actually a highly symbolic account of the story of the heavenly origin of our souls and how we have left our heavenly home to be born into this world for educational purposes. History is the record of humanity’s struggle with the illusion of separation and its consequences. It is the record of our knowledge gained from this struggle and what we have done with this knowledge. But the divine perspective is that there is no separation. The gospel of Jesus is the good news that we are actually one with God in the same way that Jesus was. Our ego-self is a condition of forgetfulness of our one-ness with all things. It is our lower natural self which we must “crucify” in order for our higher spiritual nature to come through. It is the message of Jesus that through self-sacrifice out of love for others, we can bring into our awareness the one-ness that we really are.
And this the simple message of all mystical religions. We are one with the Whole. Separation is an illusion. “Evil” is merely being ignorant of these realities. As Jesus said to not be so stupid as to hate your enemies (paraphrase).
Instead, love those who persecute you. Osama Bin Laden is an “arm of God” in the same way that we all are “arms of God.” One might even say that Bin Laden is a “tool” of God in the same way that some people believe that Satan is a “tool” of God meting out divine justice to people. And if a Satan really does exist (which I believe he doesn’t), then I am sure that we are obligated to love even him unconditionally as well. According to Jesus, God loves all his so-called “enemies.” So the horrible terrorism that Bin Laden is causing, must have a higher purpose for it – even if Bin Laden is completely ignorant of it. For example, the Bible reveals that the people who killed Jesus were only doing God’s will and their actions were predestined by God before they were even born. Many Christians believe that the unjustified killing of Jesus was the greatest atrocity ever committed. But, at the same time, Christians also believe his death resulted the greatest good of all – the redemption of humanity. Is it possible that the greatest “sin” can also be the greatest “good” at the same time? It appears that way. The Bible even states that Jesus was made perfect because of what he suffered. But does this mean we should be going around acting like Bin Laden and having people killed so that good will result from it? Of course not. That would be very ignorant. Paul was erroneously accused of teaching this very thing. It just means that God’s will is always done – even if it implies that God allows people to commit terrible atrocities for a higher purpose. Near-death experiences reveal this to be the case as well:
“I went over to the other side with a lot of fears about toxic waste, nuclear missiles, the population explosion, the rainforest. I came back loving every single problem. I love nuclear waste. I love the mushroom cloud; this is the holiest mandala that we have manifested to date, as an archetype. It, more than any religion or philosophy on earth, brought us together all of a sudden, to a new level of consciousness. Knowing that maybe we can blow up the planet fifty times, or 500 times, we finally realize that maybe we are all here together now. For a period they had to keep setting off more bombs to get it in to us. Then we started saying, “We do not need this any more.” Now we are actually in a safer world than we have ever been in, and it is going to get safer. So I came back loving toxic waste, because it brought us together. These things are so big. As Peter Russell might say, these problems are now “soul size.” Do we
All the suffering in our lives is actually for our own good. Out of the most tragic of circumstances springs human growth. (Angie Fenimore)
Bin Laden and many Muslims in the Middle East express their hatred for American as “the Great Satan” because it exports its culture of what they view as pornography and gratuitous violence. I am NOT agreeing with Jerry Falwell who blamed September 11 on America’s permissiveness with “homosexuals and pagans” which is completely absurd. What I am saying is that there is a cultural war going on – in America, but even greater, in the entire world. It is a war over religion and philosophy. Whether you call it a “holy war” or a “Crusade” or a “culture war” or a “political struggle”, it doesn’t matter. Such wars have been the scourge of human history. And it appears that human beings do not learn enough from history. Perhaps it is just the same actors on the stage throughout history that are creating a stir. But like all the religious wars that have broken out over the ages, the larger the destruction that occurs, the greater the healing that takes place afterward. World War II was certainly a religious war. It was a war fought between fascism in Germany, communism in Russia, imperialism in Japan, capitalism in America (If you don’t believe that capitalism is a religion, read about how modern capitalism grew from the Protestant work ethic), and Judaism in Europe.
For these reasons, it should be no stretch of logic to believe that World War III began on September 11, 2001. The war could even be called “Armageddon” – the war that the Bible predicts will occur before a new era of human enlightenment comes to the world. Unfortunately, the wars that humanity fights also results in massive natural disasters as revealed in so many near-death experiences:
The near-death experiencer Reverend Howard Storm described what the light beings told him concerning events that will occur on earth for the next two hundred years. He asked the light beings the question: “Will the United States be the leader of the world in this change?” The light beings replied:
“The United States has been given the opportunity to be the teacher for the world, but much is expected of those to whom much has been given. The United States has been given more of everything than any country in the history of the world and it has failed to be generous with the gifts. If the United States continues to exploit the rest of the world by greedily consuming the world’s resources, the United States will have God’s blessing withdrawn. Your country will collapse economically which will result in civil chaos. Because of the greedy nature of the people, you will have people killing people for a cup of gasoline. The world will watch in horror as your country is obliterated by strife. The rest of the world will not intervene because they have been victims of your exploitation. They will welcome the annihilation of such selfish people. The United States must change immediately and become the teachers of goodness and generosity to the rest of the world. Today the United States is the primary merchant of war and the culture of violence that you export to the world. This will come to an end because you have the seeds of your own destruction within you. Either you will destroy yourselves or God will bring it to an end if there isn’t a change.” (Rev. Howard Storm)
Howard Storm also wrote, “I don’t know if the richest country in the history of the world is doomed to lose God’s blessing or if the people of the United States will become the moral light of the world. How long will God allow the injustice to continue? The future lies in the choices we make right now. God is intervening in direct ways in human events. May God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!” (Rev. Howard Storm)
In a Spirit Daily.com online newspaper article on August 18, 2003 by Michael H. Brown entitled Near-Death Prophecy: Man was shown Failure of Infrastructure, Power Grid, Howard Storm discussed America’s future as shown to him during his NDE. He stated:
“They made it very clear to me that God had given this country the greatest blessing of any people in the history of the world. We have more of God’s blessing. Everything that we have comes from God. We didn’t deserve it, we didn’t earn it, but we happen to be the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the world. And God gave us all this so that we could be the instruments of God’s light in this world, and we are not instruments of light. In other countries people see us as purveyors of exploitation, military might, and pornography. They see us as completely hedonistic and amoral — we have no morality. People can do whatever they want wherever they want with whatever they want. Our amorality is a cancer on the rest of the world, and God created us to be just the opposite.
“People get mad at me for saying it, but God is very unhappy with what we’re doing. When I came back from the experience I was almost out of my mind trying to convert people. God wanted a worldwide conversion thousands of years ago. God pulled out all the stops 2,000 years ago with Jesus. From God’s view, that was the definitive moment in human history. And the impact of the prophets and teachers and the Messiah has been a big disappointment to God because people have by and large rejected it. I was told that God wants this conversion. And if we don’t get with the program fairly soon, He is going to have to intervene in some ways that from a human point of view are going to seem cataclysmic. God is really tired of what we’re doing to one another and the planet and to His Creation. We were put in this world to be stewards and live in harmony with His creation and one another and we don’t realize the important spiritual consequences of what we do when we raise a child in a faithless society.”
“I asked how [America’s purification] would come about, and they said it would be simple, that our society is very dependent on a lot of very fragile things — energy grid, transportation. In each geographical area of the United States people used to be relatively self-sufficient as far as agricultural products. Now, how long would any state survive without the transport of food and energy?
“What would happen is these very complex and delicate grids of our economic system would begin to break down. We’ve created a society of such cruel and self-centered people that the very nature of civilization would begin to break down. The angels showed me that what would happen is that people would begin robbing the grocery stores, hording goods, and killing one another for gasoline and tires, and as a consequence everything would break down and would end up in chaos.”
Reinee Pasarow was also shown during her NDE how catastrophic earth changes are the result of human conflict on Earth. This suggests that the Earth and everything in it is really a single organism:
The world will experience tremendous upheaval. Great suffering will occur because humans are breaking the laws of the universe. Like a man arrogantly defying the law of gravity, humanity will experience great suffering as a result breaking these laws. Humanity is being consumed by the “cancers of arrogance, materialism, racism, chauvinism, and separatist thinking.” A cleansing of the earth will result for the purpose of education. Humanity will become “born anew.” It will be a painful process, but humanity will emerge humbled, educated, peaceful and unified. (Reinee Pasarow)
NDE researcher Margot Grey had one particular near-death experiencer tell her these catastrophic earth changes are a reflection of all the social upheaval and violence happening all over the world at the moment. For a more complete list of NDE visions of the future and how they show that Earth and everything in it is one single organism, visit the NDE and the Future page.
In conclusion, we should not only not hate Osama Bin Laden and their pals, we should try to love and understand them and everyone in the Middle East. They are our brothers after all. Their terrorist attacks are really a cry out for help and it is our obligation to help them. It may require the “tough love” of God to stop Bin Laden from hurting others and therefore himself. One thing is for certain: By loving and helping them, we are loving and helping ourselves and God. And because we are all one, praying for them would be an excellent idea as well. Maybe instead of dropping bombs on them, we should start dropping massive quantities of food and goods. Maybe that would begin to change hearts and minds.
We should also look within ourselves and try to understand what it is about us that causes them to hate us so much. Whatever it is, perhaps we should try to be more understanding and tolerant of their views. As the great John Lennon once said, “We can work it out.” Pray for peace.
