True believers

    All of you know that I am addicted to quotations.  Here is an absolutely brilliant quotation: “Doubt holds people to ethical behavior.  True believers have done the murdering.”  That can be applied to so many people, and so many situations.
    Currently many of you are thinking of Muslim terrorists.  They are true believers.  In the name of their god, for their cause they are ready to attack the west, America, England.  They are true believers.  If they die for their cause they will go to heaven.
    But what about anti-abortionists?  In the name of their cause, they have murdered doctors.  They are true believers, and some of them are murderers.
    Doubt holds people to ethical behavior.  If you are not sure you are right, you are not going to kill people to support your point of view, your cause.  This can even be said of the western counties today.  If they were only a little more full of doubt, they wouldn’t be so ready to intervene in Afghanistan, go to war with Vietnam, send troops to many places in the world.
    Not so long ago we invaded a country, Panama, in order to capture a drug dealer, Noriega.  Many Panamanians died in our search for a man we thought was to blame for what is drug addiction in the American population.  We should be a little more full of doubt.  We should not be true believers.  True believers have done the murdering.
    True believers who murder can be found throughout history.  What were the crusades?  How many people were murdered then?  What about the inquisition?  And I do not wish to target only Muslims & Christians.  Israel’s behavior -- and I am Jewish -- Israel’s behavior is, in many ways, reprehensible.  True believers commit murder.  It is better to be full of doubt, to be uncertain.  Doubt holds people to ethical behavior.
    It is so hard to believe that uncertainty is good -- but uncertainty is wonderful: it means you are not ready to kill because you are sure that you are right.  People who are absolutely sure they are right too often kill because they are so sure they are right.
    No.  It is better to be uncertain because uncertainty leads to tolerance, not murder.  To repeat the absolutely brilliant quotation: “Doubt holds people to ethical behavior.  True believers have done the murdering.” 
    We should all be full of doubt.  We are human.  We may not be right.  And murder is murder, no matter how just the cause may seem to you.