In response to Lauren Feeney's post "Koran by Heart" (April 21, 2012):
The concept that there are both conservative and more laid-back or liberal Muslims is certainly worth taking note of, as it is both true and woefully unknown amongst many Americans today. Additionally, it raises the idea of extremism in other belief systems. While almost all religions (and lack thereof), I believe, contain valuable advice and information about human nature and how to live one's life, all of them tend to become more negative than positive when followers take them too far. Numerous examples of this pepper contemporary society: Christians who follow Jesus' teachings versus the Westboro Baptist Church, atheists who hold their views due to lack of evidence versus anti-theists disguised as atheists, Muslims who follow Muhammad's teachings versus the 9/11 bombers, agnostics versus... agnostics who claim all other belief systems are silly, perhaps? I'm not certain about the last one, but it seems likely that even agnosticism can go too far. Ultimately, I think that there are very few beliefs which are inherently bad; it is simply fanatic adherents who commit atrocities, falsely, in the name of the belief.
This post actually relates to Adam's post The Western Bias, which I see you commented on as well. I'm a little confused when you mention the negative aspect of followers. Do you mean to say that the followers of a said religion take certain concepts of the religion too far and turn them negative?
ReplyDeleteYes; either that or they distort those concepts beyond recognition, as some modern Christian denominations have done with the teachings of Jesus, or as the 9/11 bombers did with the idea of Jihad. In effect, I think extremism in ANY belief system (religious or secular) tends to result in condemnation of those who do not subscribe to that system.
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