Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary scientist and atheist, talks about his belief that people who attend church regularly have encouraged fundamentalism by being to nice. Since the people of a religion are so nice, people think that there is no reason to justify their religion and there is no need to question it. They see the good in those people and just follow everything in that religion even if they don’t fully understand it. I believe that faith is a non-evidence based belief but I also agree with Richard Dawkins on how fundamentalists and extremists use this a reason to justify their behaviours and this is where the issue arises.
‘Nice’ religious people make the world feel safe for these extremists/fundamentalist because they believe that they can justify their actions, whether it is good or bad, by telling people that it is their faith and that nobody has the right to say it’s wrong. What confuses me about extremists is that even though they say that they are following their faith/religion, they neglect the morals and laws taught in their religion. Their actions should be contradicting their religious morals and laws and so they shouldn’t be doing what they are doing. Richard Dawkins also mentions that we shouldn’t blame or brand the Muslim community as extremists; as many people have done and still continue to believe. He says that extremism is a violent form of fundamentalism that can arise from pretty much any religious sect but really only a small amount of that religious sect. Once one member of a religious faith does something wrong, people begin to negatively view the members of that religion as a whole.
Every time there is a terrorist act or a mass murder, reporters start calling with questions on the psychiatric diagnosis. The default position seems to be that every religious extremist or political fanatic or mass murderer must be crazy. Naming a diagnosis somehow satisfies a deep human need to explain what otherwise seems an unexplained act. But names can only describe, they do not explain. Our diagnostic system has chosen not to consider fanaticism a mental disorder. But confusion nonetheless arises because there is no clear boundary separating religious and political extremism from psychiatric illness. One man's cherished belief is another man's delusion.
At first glance, the link between religious extremism and terrorism seems obvious. Religious extremists are willing to murder because they embrace theologies that sanction violence in the service of God. They have no sympathy for their victims, because they view those victims as enemies of God. And they readily sacrifice their own lives because they expect huge and immediate afterlife rewards in return for “martyrdom.” But upon closer examination, theological explanations raise more questions than they answer.
The article makes some very compelling points in describing the reasons why an average person will do something harmful to an innocent person because of religious extremism. The author avoids the usual simplistic reasons and explains that the reasons are in fact multi-dimensional. Some of the reasons are the world’s lack of a moderate and moral role-model. In many places in the world young people do not have access to proper education, lack basic resources, suffer too much repression and live in societies with autocratic, egocentric leaders. Other reasons may be personality factors, family upbringing and a lack of self-pride.
There may be a few general characteristics of people who turn into extremists:
1. They have a sense of absolutism,
2. They have a sense of righteousness,
3. They do confirmation bias,
4. They have a sense of knowing an ultimate meaning,
5. They dehumanize whoever does not fit their view,
6. They idealize historic figures or stories,
7. They have an utter certainty that they are right,
8.They have a sense of unwillingness to compromise,
9. They have too much focus on the life after death, and
10. They have many psychological defenses.
Some of the ways to go against extremism are to increase your own knowledge and to speak your truth against them.