By: Bryan Patterson

Nature, Mr is what we were put into this world to rise above — Katherine Hepburn in The African Queen

THERE IS a Tibetan legend about a time on Earth when all life seems in peril.

Terrorism, so the legend goes, is rife. Barbarian powers, with weapons of mass destruction, are trying annihilate each other.

It is now, as the future of the human race hangs by frail threads, that the mystical Kingdom of emerges.

The warriors of this kingdom, who wear no uniforms and carry no guns, must go to the very heart of Barbarian power to dismantle their terrifying weapons.

The warriors use their only weapons — compassion and insight — to change the minds and hearts of the Barbarians.

The happy ending is a general global understanding that battles are not between good and bad people, because the line between good and evil runs through every human heart.

Humans realise that they are interconnected and that each individual human act affects the entire race.

It is a nice tale. But a fairytale nevertheless.

This week, it would be difficult for many Australians to believe in the notion that we are all — terrorists and victims alike — born virtuous noble savages and that it is only society that warps and corrupts us.

As the unbelievable events in Bali became undeniable, we have grappled for answers about human nature.

English author Professor Richard says human life is nothing more than a way for selfish genes to multiply and reproduce.

To atheists, life is a cosmic accident and morality is an arbitrary game we play for amusement.

To Hindus, life is part of a great recurring circle. To Buddhists, the material world and suffering are illusionary.

To some Christians, suffering is a consequence of sin. Some innocents inevitably suffer for the sinful nature of others.

The agnostics ask why such suffering and terror is allowed by a God who apparently knows when each sparrow falls, yet fails to stop a car bomber.

Where was God last weekend, they ask.

Strong Christians answer that God was there in the Sari club, with the suffering. And that he was appalled by the brutality of some to brothers and sisters.

Holocaust survivor wrote that “God accompanies his children into exile. No space is devoid of God. God is everywhere, even in suffering and in the very heart of punishment. What happens to us touches God. What happens to him concerns

The truth is that the terror attacks on God’s creatures were attacks against God’s law. The psychological view that this anti-social behaviour can be simply explained by environmental causes, frustration at capitalism or inadequate potty training, does not hit the heart of the problem.

Some people make definite choices to commit evil. Evil probably will not have the last word, but it is more than an illusion and it often uses religion as its vehicle.

Not only one religion. We are naturally appalled by the hateful rhetoric of the radical Muslims, but also by the likes of TV evangelist Jerry who last week described the Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist.

We think life was normal and secure before last weekend. But it really. This country, in fact the Western world as a whole, had been drifting away from community obligation. Fulfilment of individual desires had left little room for compassion for others.

Perhaps the new reality allows some positive thought. We live in a dangerous world, where clashes of culture are a fact of life. Yet we cannot live forever in fear.

Perhaps we can fight harder to combat injustices and evil.

In the middle ages when the world seemed in danger of self-imploding, Martin Luther King asked for action.

“This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed non-conformists,” he said.

“The saving of our world from impending doom will come not from the action of a conforming majority, but from the creative maladjustment of a dedicated minority.”