Know your enemy

I was reading another one of my regularly visited sites the other day and I came across a discussion of the relative merits of the Islamic and Christian faiths.

While I was reading through it I was almost tempted to comment. However, the fact that a lot of the comments are clearly penned (or should that be keyboarded?) by dangerous loonies caused me to desist. That and the presence of others who clearly have the same view as me writing more coherently on my behalf.

I remember sitting on a Shinkansen (Sherd, should that have a capital?) next to my grandma. I asked her what religion she had followed as a girl.

"None", came the reply, "And I certainly don't follow any now, well, not seriously. Religion is for weak people with nothing better to do. I am not an empty person." Or words to that effect. The actual words would have been more disjointed - just think Yoda - but I'll not confuse you.

Now, I wouldn't go to that extreme, but I have always had a lot of difficulty understanding why people feel the need to have these beliefs for no concrete gain. Sure, you do get some social benefit on occasion - charities, a sense of well being, friends - but the strategic application of alcohol and chocolate can have the same effect.

I figured, though, that if they weren't hurting anyone, I didn't care what they got up to.

As a kid I came to the conclusion that a belief in a higher power or powers was a result of the fear caused by an inability to comprehend the universe. Try this, close your eyes, imagine sitting at your computer (you might have to close your eyes after you've read the whole passage), then imagine where the room is in realtion to the house, then the suburb, then the city, then the country, then the globe, then the solar system - you get the idea.


If you keep going far enough you get to a point that you don't know. Then you ask, where the hell am I?

God provides a simple answer to that, and you can go on about your day. Or you can ignore the question completely. Or perhaps you can ask the question and be comfortable not knowing.

But if you're not comfortable, you either get comfortable or go crazy.

The question is: if people did not believe in gods, would more of them have focussed on trying to answer the questions, or would everyone have flipped out?

Which doesn't really bring me back to the article.

There is a lot of back and forth about which religion is the most peaceful/ violent/ tolerant/ etc. It's pretty clear to me that it has bugger all to do with religion, and more to do with the adherents.

So if we accept that Muslim extremists are more common than others (I must say I don't actually accept this for a second), then what is the reason?

The Christians seem to attribute that to the religion, but not in a balanced way - their view is Muslims are extremists because of the religion, but Christians that are extremists have lost their way. The Muslims seem to fall into the trap of demonising Jews, which just makes them look stupid.

The extremists, from all religions, appear to come from poorer areas. I just can't think of an example of rich people blowing shit up.

There are the Muslim groups, the Christian groups (you know, Branch Davidian, skinheads, National Front types), those crazy Aum Shinrikyo dudes (not sure what their caper was) and even a Jewish one.
And then, of course, there are all those Leftist type groups - Shining Path, Baader-Meinhof (that last one I got from Ludlum books - it may or may not be real and I can't be bothered checking). Relgion is generally not an issue for these types.

Obviously, religion is not the issue. As much as god-botherers give me the shits locking them all up will not solve the terrorist problem, even if it would enable our society in general to move forward in other ways.

They all have one thing in common, though, and that is a general grievance with the world at large. If we spent a bit more time and resources on figuring out exactly what that was, and adressing it, maybe we wouldn't have all these dramas (except for those Aum blokes, maybe, and those ones with the sports shoes and the comet with the stupid name).