T

hese letters refer to an article titled '€œEurope'€™s greatest need: Profound spirituality,'€ (The Jakarta Post, March 1, p7) by Harun Yahya, Istanbul.

I think this article brings up some very valid points with regard to the effect the spiritual void has on how we value life, but I wish the answer were as simple, as the author seems to think that the void he or she speaks of is evident in some places where many would claim to be very religious.

Countries that are quite religious have also mistreated animals. The difference is people sometimes will use religion to sanction it. As long as we teach that animals are ours to use, this will continue (how many times have we seen children on Idul Adha watch and sometimes even mock a bound and bleeding innocent being?)

Then you also see some children and even adults with the only appropriate look on their face: horror. Even religious folks seem to have forgotten that the basis of all faiths is compassion for others and if anyone qualifies as another, it is our nonhuman brethren, whom God also created and who will also return to that source (no doubt with things to report about humankind).

So what happened to Marius, which has outraged the public, happens every minute to enslaved animals everywhere in the world, which for animals is a living hell. It seems that regardless of whether it is a religious viewpoint or a materialistic one, humans have placed themselves in a position where they are no longer a part of nature but seek to control it.

The human desire for eating and exploiting animals (as food, clothing, entertainment, research subject, trinkets, aphrodisiacs, sex [yes they have brothels in Europe!]) and whatever else the sick human mind can conjure, seems unstoppable.

We control the freedom they were granted. We control even their most basic right, reproduction. We can all be more spiritual and less '€œreligious'€ if by religious all we mean following a set of rules and observing certain holy days.

We can practice spirituality instead of paying lip service to it simply by treating the most vulnerable among us, the animals, with respect and kindness and we can do so every day by not consuming animals.

Dande Liong
Jakarta

A person can do great harm when there are justified grounds to do so. It can be ideology, a twisted idea that some people are inferior or deserve to die. Look at the example of Nazi violence and the massacred Jews. Look at the situation in some places like East Turkestan, Afghanistan and Syria, where Muslims are oppressed.

There are also some people with radical religious beliefs who are misguided in their views of religion. For any sort of violence and hatred to come to an end, people need to believe for sure that other living beings also have a right to exist and in a good way with the same rights and means as everyone else.

But where should such moral awareness come from? We need to distinguish between right and wrong so we must know that it is wrong to kill animals and humans but it is right not to.

Our inner existence and our souls tell us what is right and wrong. We choose accordingly what to do but what influences our choices? It all depends on who you are.

If you fear God in the sense that you believe in the hereafter and you don'€™t want to go to hell, you get your act together and do no wrong.  You respect everyone and every living thing because they are the creation of God. You love everything again with this thought in mind. This is what the whole world needs.

Kate Sheppy
Jakarta