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Explores the relationship between politics and religion leading up to the rise of the religious right in America and the emergence of political Islam.
After the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War, many people believed that the long centuries of global conflict were finally over. Dictatorships began falling like dominoes and it seemed like democracy would spread rapidly around the globe, giving rise to a new world order based upon freedom, market economics, and peace. Even the United States cut back on military spending and began closing its overseas bases.
Apart from the Iranian revolution, few Western commentators cared about the growing popularity of radical Islam throughout Asia and the Middle East. Most Westerners had become desensitized to the ongoing conflicts in Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, and Chechnya. The victory of the Taliban, which brought peace to Afghanistan, was seen as a welcome curiosity. The Western world was ignoring the growing hatred that many Muslims were feeling towards what was perceived to be a continuation of Christian and Jewish imperialism.
The resurgence of Christianity in the United States and the return of family values were applauded by most conservative commentators. Christianity enjoyed the respect of being one of the historical foundations of Western culture, and apart from dividing the community over issues like abortion and homosexuality, religious faith seemed like a reassuring alternative to the postmodern uncertainty of relativism and skepticism.
Religious hostility was mostly confined to a few troubled regions where people with differing religious faiths shared the same area of land. Religious differences often fueled bitter power struggles for political control of the land, which occasionally erupted into violence and bloodshed.
With the collapse of communism, the market economy finally won the worldwide right to decide the distribution of wealth. But with technological advancement and the convergence of regional cultures into a single worldwide television and Internet culture, it suddenly became apparent that as well as the global competition for resources and the uneven distribution of material wealth, there was one more major unsolved source of global hostility.
The clash of civilizations
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were a rude awakening for the Western world. It suddenly seemed like the conflict between capitalism and communism had only delayed a more serious and potentially devastating three-way battle between Christian beliefs, Islamic beliefs, and secular democratic materialism, with each region of the world having its own cultural investments to protect.
A fierce debate is now raging between Christians, Muslims, and secular intellectuals in the world media and on the Internet. And if the American invasion of Iraq has taught us anything, it is that we must expect the political and religious tensions to continue to rise over the coming decades, with increased military spending, an escalation in global conflict, and the possibility of nuclear terrorism.
While many observers have strong feelings about the current world crisis, there seems to be very little agreement about why it is happening or what should be done about it. Corporate media commentators only seem to focus on personality politics and other contemporary aspects of the conflict. Most Western commentators are merely mouthpieces for either the secular left or religious right, from where they earn their living by helping to fan the flames of hostility. The opinions of politicians are driven mostly by vested interests, and the universities seem to be incapable of providing any authoritative analysis or practical solutions.
It could be argued that in order to properly understand the situation, you first need to be aware of the long-term patterns that underlie the history of human beliefs. But it is surprising how little the average person knows or even cares about how Christianity and Islam were ever able to rise to dominate the mass consciousness in the first place. Few secular thinkers seem to be able to make sense out of Christianity or Islam, and most believers are too mesmerized by their own beliefs to know what is real and what is not. Nobody has yet been able to deconstruct the myths in a convincing way, and very few have been brave enough to try.
Shattering the sacred myths
This book began with a simple, easy to read, step-by-step explanation of how humans evolved from self-replicating organic molecules through random mutation and natural selection. It then hinted that the evolutionary process may be transforming into something new as the race for military superiority and higher profits drives the ongoing discovery of more advanced technologies. It reflected on whether the inevitable change from natural evolution to ‘consciously controlled evolution’ through genetic engineering and artificial intelligence could suggest some kind of mysterious cosmic plan underlying the evolution of intelligent life. And it suggested that questioning the possibility of a purpose behind natural evolution is the only meaningful way to debate the existence of God.
After having established a strictly rational and yet metaphysically open-minded context, this book then proceeded to methodically deconstruct three thousand years of popular belief, focusing primarily on Judaism, Greek philosophy, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. The underlying theme of the book has been that these religions and moral philosophies arose over the centuries not only as explanations for our earthly existence, but also as strategies for regulating the distribution of political power.
The rest of this chapter has been cut from the internet. It contains political ideas that may be considered too radical for some people's sensitivities.
Continue to chapter 16 ... Replacing Religion with Science
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