Religious Fundamentalism

[Neltharius]

This is more of a survey than a debate, but feel free to discuss.

Every generation since the middle ages has had a major driving force that effected major change. The big ones are Humanism bringing about the Renaissance, formal Logic leading to the Enlightenment, its emotional response that gave us Romanticism, and a slew of others. For our grandparents, it was Nazism and Fascism. For some boomers it was sexual liberation. For others, Socialism.

Our generation's big change agent is a bit unclear though. Sure, globalization had a huge effect, and so did recent wars and Terrorism. In the US, the religious right is become ever more powerful. I'm not saying that all of the above are mutually exclusive. However, looking at the most powerful political factions around the world today, I believe that all of them share one thing: an unshakable religious dogma. For the purpose of this debate, I will classify Atheism and Secularism as religions.

For the sake of brevity, I'll just say that both the religious right and the very terrorists they hate have religion written all over their agendas and actions. As do the Secular Humanists and the Atheists. The only reason they're in such huge conflict is because they subscribe to different dogmas and cling to dying and pointless traditions and rituals. Maybe less so for Atheists, but groupthink among them is just as pervasive as anything else. Yes, Nazis and Commies were to be feared, but they had a physical location. Our generation's war isn't one between countries, but a war of ideas -- bulletproof and bombproof ideas that have no location but inside the heads of a few deranged individuals. Unfortunately the individuals are just as charismatic as the assholes of the past.

I say separating church from state completely would only make the problems worse. That would be a nearly unfixable political change. Rather, this change needs to be social. People need to be less extreme in their views and definitely more tolerant of dissent. But first the spiritual leaders need to gain a sense of self-awareness that has been missing since JFK. Narcissism GWBush style gets people nowhere.

[John]

I voted 'General Terrorism'. Maybe it doesn't happen in any other countries, but even if its not Terrorists directly attacking us, then its our polititicians threatening that they will. Wtf? Its a bad driving force but dammit, its true in America.

-John

[fanatacist]

Every time I considered voting for one, I would see another and would feel tempted to vote for that too. I can't choose one driving force, seeing as how many of these affect us and others each day. Terrorism affects Africa, the USA, Eastern Europe, and of course the Middle East. Religion, mostly the clash between the 3 top religions in war and politics. Economic globalization has affected our future jobs, our parents' jobs, and really the world we live in here in commercialized America. I also think science has pushed us, being has how the past few "Ages" (like the Rennaissance you mentioned) have been science-related - Atomic Age, Space Age, and now the Computer/Internet Age. I think it would be impossible for me to choose one major driving force in light of the sheer amount of things going on in our world today.

[Anonymous]

this country is run on the fear and dismantlement of terrorism.. WE GOTTA GO INTO IRAQ AND KILL THE TERRORISTS. we gotta go into this place and take out terrorists. gas prices are high because terrorists are "raising" prices.(bullshit i think the heads of gas companies should die for price gouging). and then most of our funding is to stop terrorism in places like fucking iraq when all of the sudden VTECH happens. we cant keep the violence out of our own country..

we are ruled by fucking idiots.. idiots

[John]

this country is run on the fear and dismantlement of terrorism.. WE GOTTA GO INTO IRAQ AND KILL THE TERRORISTS. we gotta go into this place and take out terrorists. gas prices are high because terrorists are "raising" prices.(bullshit i think the heads of gas companies should die for price gouging). and then most of our funding is to stop terrorism in places like fucking iraq when all of the sudden VTECH happens. we cant keep the violence out of our own country..

we are ruled by fucking idiots.. idiots

Fucking terrorists making Sunoco raise their Premium prices. Oh wait, thats us. Dammit!

[Anonymous]

this country is run on the fear and dismantlement of terrorism.. WE GOTTA GO INTO IRAQ AND KILL THE TERRORISTS. we gotta go into this place and take out terrorists. gas prices are high because terrorists are "raising" prices.(bullshit i think the heads of gas companies should die for price gouging). and then most of our funding is to stop terrorism in places like fucking iraq when all of the sudden VTECH happens. we cant keep the violence out of our own country..

we are ruled by fucking idiots.. idiots

Fucking terrorists making Sunoco raise their Premium prices. Oh wait, thats us. Dammit!

no im talking about how they get they're oil from those damn arabs

[John]

this country is run on the fear and dismantlement of terrorism.. WE GOTTA GO INTO IRAQ AND KILL THE TERRORISTS. we gotta go into this place and take out terrorists. gas prices are high because terrorists are "raising" prices.(bullshit i think the heads of gas companies should die for price gouging). and then most of our funding is to stop terrorism in places like fucking iraq when all of the sudden VTECH happens. we cant keep the violence out of our own country..

we are ruled by fucking idiots.. idiots

Fucking terrorists making Sunoco raise their Premium prices. Oh wait, thats us. Dammit!

no im talking about how they get they're oil from those damn arabs

Not all arabs are terrorists.

[Anonymous]

did i say that? i said the arabs controlling the oil are terrorists. they are stealing money from the oil companies that in turn steal from the amercian people. so basically arabs are stealing money from americans, making them lose jobs because they cant afford the gas to get there. they are filling up american hospitals in the winter time because people cant afford the gas to heat their homes. and then they cant afford the hospital bill

to be honest that is a passive form of terrorism

[Neltharius]

It's times like these I wish I were an admin. Back to the debate.

I'd vote for Terrorism too, but I'll reiterate what I said previously. Most terrorism is driven by religion. Timothy McVeigh, Chechnya, and IRA aside, just about all modern terrorism happen because Islamic fundamentalist radicals wish to create their own little utopia. Al Qaeda hates us, and the Moors want to get back at the Spaniards for the Reconquista. After reading "The Conservative Soul" (a book about how the right wing got hijacked by religious fundies), I gained much insight into why the terrorists were doing what they were doing. Conservatives call them terrorists. The liberals like to call them freedom fighters. The terrorists think they're just doing God's work. And so do the Republican Politicians. They're just so fundamentalist and narcissistic that they've lost all common sense. Their heads are in the clouds, not down on Earth.