As always, the world is on the brink of total war.
 
Why? Throughout history, the core driver is belief—specifically, belief that detaches from our Creator-endowed reason and conscience.

(Note: A true Creator has nothing to do with man-made religions, their holy books, or the holy leaders who claim to speak on their behalf.)
 
Four belief systems, as usual, dominate this crisis: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and secular materialism.
 
 
ABRAHAMIC BELIEF SYSTEMS
Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism and a vassal to it. Islam is also an offshoot of Judaism, but an enemy of it. All three are wrapped up in apocalyptic end-of-times doomsday eschatology scenarios where their followers achieve heavenly bliss, and nonbelievers end up in gruesome eternal hells of one sort or another.
 
It's all mapped out in books that the human founders of the religions put together.

Judeo-Christian eschatology and prophesy

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Islam eschatology

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​These god-religions, with their prophecies and eschatologies, have all the arcane details worked out by scholars and sages. These honored and revered folks believed to be speaking for the Creator, feed beliefs to the sheep.  

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Such is the way of man-made institutions. They always boil down to powerful leaders--in this case, mouthpieces for the gods-- at the top, with compliant dependent followers beneath.
 
 
SECULAR MATERIALISM, A RELIGION WITHOUT GODS
The fourth religion, secular materialism, is atheistic and Marxist. It has leaders at the top of and buried within governments and under great wealth. Today, it's manifest as globalism and seeks world control of everything, including the god-religions. It is moving to supplant the family, gender, nationhood, and individual freedom.
 
Its eschatology is an evolution into a utopian cybernetic world of human-machine integration, where a global elite governs thought, movement, and life itself. 

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To achieve that end, it needs an apocalypse. So it fosters destabilization, wars, economic collapse, pandemics, climate collapse … and anything else that can create fear. War, economic collapse, no food, and the resulting fear are used to drive people into the arms of leaders who, in exchange for total surveillance and control of money and resources, promise peace and security.
 
 
CONSEQUENCES OF ATHEISTIC MATERIALISM RELIGION
Belief in secular atheistic materialism, by way of communist ideology partnered with industrial, military, and economic forces, is the second leading cause of death in modern history. While some argue that the ideology promotes equality and justice, the track record, once implemented, is overwhelmingly characterized by despotic rule, mass suffering, coercion, and social decay. Attributed to it are 150 million or more deaths. Famine, economic collapse, political repression, loss of freedom and free speech, forced labor and internment, torture, cultural and environmental destruction, and psychological and social trauma are its hallmarks.
 
 
CONSEQUENCES OF GOD RELIGIONS
God-religion consequences go back to the time when gods were first created and infest World Wars and almost every other conflict. Those on both sides justify violence by believing their god is on their side. The tally in deaths, torture, and misery is difficult to calculate but has to be 500 million or more.

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All three god-religions contain texts that demand and condone horrific acts and punishments.
 
Islamic holy books demand hanging, beheading, stoning, throwing from a height, hand amputation, lashing, and beating for a variety of infractions. The most serious offense, apostasy--disbelief or rejection of Islam--prescribes death as the punishment for individuals or nations as a whole.
 
In the Judeo-Christian Bible, there are like punishments, such as stoning to death disobedient children, killing people who pick up sticks on a certain day or look in a box, drowning an entire world other than one family, killing the firstborn of an entire nation, slaughtering whole nations but keeping young girls to take home and rape, killing for not cutting the prepuce off young boy's penises, ripping open pregnant women, causing children to suffer for generation because of the sins of parents,  etc. ad nauseam. (A more comprehensive list with Bible references upon request.)  
 
Such stories and commands are passed off as "divine justice," numbing believers to the cruelty and moral contradiction they embody.
 
 
A PATTERN OF DELUSION AND CRUELTY
Religious belief—whether theistic or secular—can override basic human empathy. Once a person believes their actions are justified by a higher authority or inevitable cosmic purpose, they are capable of horrific acts.
 
And yet, all of this is preventable.
 
The current convergence of god-religions and secular ideologies in geopolitical conflict is not a coincidence. Each side believes it is fulfilling a destiny or serving a righteous cause.
 
This is the danger of belief unmoored from conscience and reason.

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THE SOLUTION
The path forward is the rejection of blind belief. What is needed is a return to the innate tools we were given: free will, reason, and conscience. These are the real gifts of the Creator—not dogmas, not doctrines, and not destruction.