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Extremism at its Extreme

I have discussed religion a lot of times in this blog, mainly because of the very negative effects it has.  Back in the 1980s my mentor told me that all of the religions will merge into a single mass as its defenders circle the wagons.  It seemed so obvious and logical at them time, and I have seen nothing to change that thought.  This is not a new or even particularly radical idea, but it has stuck with me.

Underlying every apologist argument for religion is the view (explicit or otherwise) that there is a fundamental religion (somewhere underneath what is practiced - see this article for the view from the Islamic side) that really is “good” and “pure,” and that digging deeper and finding this underlying purity is the way to peace, love, etc. - all that nonsense.  As IS and numerous other forms of fundamentalist insanity have proven time and again, the only thing that is under there is even worse and less human than the more mass-accepted forms - check out this article for another exploration of this argument, and Richard Dawkins also makes the same point in his book The God Delusion.

The fact that most arguments pointed at the various Muslim sects (see this, this, this and/or this for examples) say the same thing but use it to point fingers just makes the point stronger - the more I read, the more obvious it is that religions as a group reinforce the general xenophobia of their adherents, making moderation and peaceful resolution of differences more difficult as their adherents travel further out towards the limits of their religions.

Perhaps IS is actually doing us a favor by making the true nature of religion obvious.  There is no reality backing the existence of “god” (and therefore none backing any form of religion,) and the actions of the Islamic State have made obvious - you might even say they have proven - that the illogical “faith” that allows the existence of religion (any religion) is just another form of madness akin to any other mental illness.  The fact that it may have roots in the biology of the brain simply says that we need to deal with and control that biological oddity, not bend down to the insanity it creates.