The Christian belief that all suffering is caused by sin, like the
Buddhist belief that all suffering is caused by desire, like the
Hindu belief that all suffering is caused by karma, like the New Age
belief that all suffering is caused by negativity, lead to extreme
cruelty and abomination. It leads people to cease striving for justice,
for freedom, for goodness, for betterment of mankind. And for the human
experience to be worthwhile, all must be stood on their head.

The correct response to the idea that suffering is caused by sin is:
What this means is that anything that causes suffering is a sin. Which
means that the oppression, the paranoia, the prosecution that people
who have such beliefs mete out to others, is a sin. And of course it
is a sin - indeed a far greater sin than hedonism or promiscuity or
whatever of which they accuse others.

The correct response to the idea that suffering is caused by desire is:
Look at the most suffering people (Afghanistan under Taliban being the
most recent example) and tell me that desire caused it. In those
societies, all forms of desire, from sexuality to property to even
music, had been outlawed. Did that result in cessation of suffering?
No, it lead to its most extreme intensification. And rather than
leading to righteousness, it lead instead to extreme cruelty and
destruction.

The correct response to the idea that suffering is caused by bad karma
is: Look at all the people who either had perfect childhood and then
had horrible lives, and then look at all the people who had horrible
childhood and then lived good lives. Look at all the people whose lives
changed with the times. Did 50 million people in 1940s have the karma
to be killed in wars, while now only perhaps 1 million people a year
have the same karma? Or is it that people's deliberate actions of how
they affect the world that is responsible for both the horrors of
World Wars and imperialism and for the far better state of affairs now?

"Negativity" - nonsense. That is the kind of belief that destroys all
compassion, caring and ethics within a person and lets him take credit
for his privileged condition, in a civilization created by blood,
brawn, brains and bravery of millions of one's betters, while spitting
at those who have not been given what he's been given and those who
experience atrocity and injustice. It is an idea that sells to the
heartless privileged brats and bastards - at jerks who have more than
they need and would deny it to others. It is a criminal idea, a
hideous idea, and one that sets the tone for a world in which people
must hide the shame of the hideousness committed against them and
cannot stand up and demand what America promises - liberty and justice.

How do you refute such an idea? Bush has already refuted it, as did
Osama Bin Laden before him. While killing 3000 people is far from the
best way to knock some compassion and goodness into the hearts of the
West, God moves in mysterious ways, doesn't He? And now, as America is
in the hands of people who think differently from them, the people who
have this criminal idea must come to terms with the fact that, no, they
have not the omnipotent power over their reality - and neither indeed
do those whom they attack and abuse.

Ilya Shambat