Most people, looking at our troubled world with its long history of injustice and human suffering, will attribute social evils to the greed, ignorance, hatred, or lack of compassion of others.  Rarely does anyone consider the possibility that his own attitudes, perception, and beliefs may be the root cause of most of the world's suffering.

But in almost every case, they are . . .

The vast majority of theft, extortion, intimidation, harassment, assault, and even murder - the vast majority of man's inhumanity to an - comes not from the greed, hatred, and intolerance that lurks in our hearts, but from one pernicious and almost universal assumption, one unquestioned belief, one irrational, self-contradictory superstition that infects all races, all religions, all nationalities, ages, and income levels.

If humankind could give up this one false idea, even without otherwise acquiring another scrap of wisdom or compassion, the vast majority of injustice and oppression would instantly cease.  But this cannot happen until people are ready and willing to turn their judgmental eyes upon themselves - to objectively examine their own belief systems, to recognize and understand, and finally to abandon, the most dangerous superstition.

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