It's all down to belief
A thought. Has there ever, anywhere in the world, been a single terrorist incident not carried out by religionists?
Islamic fundamentalism. Christian neo-conservatives. Irish Catholics and Protestants. Israeli Jews. Hamas. Hizbollah. Sikh separatists. There may, somewhere, be a 'Buddhist People's Front'. But no terror group called 'al-Atheist' or the 'Real non-Churchgoers'.
It's easy to understand why. Without the sense of entitlement and self-righteousness that religionists tend to claim as justification, atheists don't do terrorism. Those who see religion for what it is - a need for comfort, a means of gaining power, a control system for the masses - don't regard it as reason enough to start chucking bombs around.
Islamic fundamentalism. Christian neo-conservatives. Irish Catholics and Protestants. Israeli Jews. Hamas. Hizbollah. Sikh separatists. There may, somewhere, be a 'Buddhist People's Front'. But no terror group called 'al-Atheist' or the 'Real non-Churchgoers'.
It's easy to understand why. Without the sense of entitlement and self-righteousness that religionists tend to claim as justification, atheists don't do terrorism. Those who see religion for what it is - a need for comfort, a means of gaining power, a control system for the masses - don't regard it as reason enough to start chucking bombs around.
posted by chrisworth at 12:00 PM
2 Comments:
Interesting points. Though communism seems to control the masses by using atheism, right?
Yup - perhaps communism can be thought of as a religion too? Dependence on symbols/ icons and shared belief etc...
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