RE#11: DGP 15 - Religious Fundamentalism

Religion causes war. I said this in a previous blog, that its ironic how religion is centered around what is holy, pure, and sacred, but yet they are linked to warfare and large-scale deaths. And now I know the terminology for this phenomena, or at least how the book describes it: religious fundamentalism. A strict adherence to traditional, religion-based thought. I can identify with some of their arguments - that perhaps a more God-centered community would foster a peaceful, righteous way of living. But in that view, how/who would decide what the "righteous" way is? Then at the same time, I would not 100% swear off modernity - technology, a degree of secularism, and the desire for improvement/advancement is not completely sinful and evil. Is it really possible for an entire country to live without these modern values and things in this century?

It's pretty unbelievable how radical people can get that they'd resort to violence, and how many different reasons they use to justify it. I believe though that some people just have a genuine concern for mankind, for those who don't believe the same things they do, and they genuinely don't want them to go to hell, or whatever punishment awaits those who are "lost" or unbelievers. But no matter what the reason is, I firmly believe that violence is definitely NOT the answer - it does no one good, it hurts/destroys/kills, and I just don't understand their logic.

And the most ridiculous thing is this: how are we supposed to deal with these 5000 religions? We can't just tell them "hush, play nicely guys, you wouldn't want your mom to see you doing that, would you?". These people are not children, and they each have their own beliefs that they strongly, strongly hold on to. Will there ever be a world where these 5000 religious coexist peacefully? It's not fun to live in fear everyday - fear of terrorist attacks or global threats, and even on a smaller scale, fear of persecution from friends and families, all because of your religion.

Reading Osama's interview was particularly interesting. The interviewer asked him whether his "target" of Americans referred to specific Americans, or the American military, or the Americans in Saudi Arabia. And his answer was: "...America has not been known to differentiate between the military and the civilians or between men and women or adults and children. [...] Can the bombs differentiate between military and women and infants and children?" Meaning that his "target" is ALL Americans - military, women, children, grandparents, my American pets... That's frightening. Actually, to say "that's frightening" is an understatement. But what I got from this interview was a new perspective - I never heard the other side of this story, straight from the source himself. The media only told us to believe that "Osama is bad, he's a terrorist, he's wrong, we're right". Seeing the story from his side makes me think differently - he has a purpose, a goal, and a reason for doing these things, a reason based on his religion. If the tables were turned, what would we, the Americans, want to do to them to set this "right"?

I seem to be asking a lot of questions in this blog.

And I know this TERRIBLE but after all my years of history classes and even a couple of religion classes, I still have the hardest time keeping track of which countries are which religions and which religions have a beef with which religions. Jewish, Islam, Hindu, Muslim. Just last week after reading the chapter on India, I finally know that India is Hindu and Pakistan is Muslim. Now I just need to get the rest of the countries and religions matched.