It's no secret that religion gets blamed for devastating acts of violence, and not surprisingly as many people have maimed and murdered in the name of religion. Defenders of religion not unwarrantably point to the cataclysms caused by atheistic regimes, who can be just as bloody in their enforcement of secular ideals. At the same time, there are more than enough peaceful theists and atheists in the world to call into question the notion that either religion or atheism causes violence or is violent by nature.
Is there a common element to the worldviews of violent theists and violent atheists?
I think so. It seems to me that violence is not inherent in or a necessary consequence of either religious belief or the denial of a God. It is when we mistake ourselves for God or present ourselves as the ultimate founders of truth that the propensity to violence emerges. The will to violence grows and develops when we look on all alternative ways of thinking (and alternative uses of language) as erroneous and in need of elimination.
In the realm of religion, thinking of our theological language as encapsulating the whole of truth is called fundamentalism. In the realm of reason, the position that our philosophical language is the one, true philosophy is called ideology. Fundamentalism and ideology may be harmless enough when confined to a book, but when the idea that everyone must think in one particular way using one particular language framework is enforced with the sword, gun, or guillotine, then we have bloodbaths enough to keep the Phlegethon flowing and overflowing its banks.
It is tempting to believe that fundamentalist or ideological violence could never happen as normal state of affairs here in our peaceful, democratic country. Yet when I watch the theatrical debates on cable news or listen to the verbal exchanges on talk radio, where seldom is the desire to learn, to give, and to understand part of the programming, but where the normal objective is to defeat and destroy opposing points of view, I have to wonder how far we are as a people or as a society from slitting each others throats in the name of truth, goodness, and right thinking.
Pages
