Im seeing a lot of the same tired assumptions coming across my newsfeed today. You know, jihadists dont represent true Islam, every religion has its extremists (therefore religion itself is the bad influence), and that religion has been the cause of most of the war and violence in the world. All of the above assumptions are false. 1. Many in the western world do not realize that Islam is rather like Protestantism in the sense that it is divided into many different factions with no centralized authority. So who is to say what is and is not true Islam? It is not like the Catholic Church where there is a Pope and a Magesterium to definitively say our faith teaches X and not Y. 2. Yes, every religion has its extremists, but we need to ask if those extremists are that way because of their religion or despite their religion? It should be apparent that certain religions seem to foster extremism while others tend to temper it. Not all religions are equal. That may sound judgmental and non-PC, but look at the news. When is the last time you heard of a Methodist bombing a Presbyterian church? When have you heard a Cardinal in the Vatican calling for death to all Buddhists? When you read stories about terrorism, religious violence, genocide and persecution, are those stories about a wide variety of religions, or are 99% of them about one particular religion? Answer that question honestly. Ill say it again: Not all religions are equal. 3. Despite what the new atheists are saying, historically very few wars have been truly fought for religion. Most are fought for power, territory, or natural resources. In fact, according to the Encyclopedia of Wars (Phillips & Axelrod), less than 7% of wars have been fought for religious reasons, and of those, half have been waged in the name of one religion, Islam. In fact, the largest slaughters have been committed by 20th century atheist regimes. So yes, you will find extremism and violence among every religion and ideology (including atheism). I think we ought to look at a particular group and ask whether violence is the aberration or the norm, and make our judgments accordingly, rather than paint all religions with the same broad stroke.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 00:05:08 +0000
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