re: #414 dog philosopher

the hebdo massacre tempts me to take the position that the practice of religion should be outlawed as a threat to public safety

I’ve thought about this a great deal over the past few years. I’ve been wondering what the world would look like in the absence of religion. I think we’d still see terrorist attacks, and I think we’d still see bombings and brutal siege situations. In fact, we do see them and have seen them, as ideologically motivated: the Red Brigades in Italy, the Baader-Meinhof gang in Germany, and in fact, while the IRA were self-described defenders of the Catholic communities in certain parts of NI, they weren’t motivated by religion, but instead, by the desire to (i) kick the Brits from the occupied 6 counties, (ii) to protect Republicans and Nationalists against attacks from the UVF/UDA/Red Hand Commandoes, and what Irish Republicans would refer to as the rest of the apparatus of the British State.

But what I’ve concluded, and I may be wrong but I don’t think I’m too far off, is, that young men seem to be most easily recruited for war, for battle, for conflict. I think there’s a period in the life of many young males, particularly those who might refer to use of strength or to force as a positive characteristic, when they are both physically and mentally susceptible to want to fight.

And doing a bit of research over the last few days, it seems like many of these Islamist terrorists were brutal people before they were radicalised. So I think you can be radicalised to commit violence for a cause - and it is this devotion to ideology, to some cause, that I think is dangerous. Not specifically to a religion.

A great example is Thucydides and his account of the Peloponesian War. There’s one part, where the Corinthians (I think - or was it the Corscyrans?) appeal to the Athenians, suggesting they should aid them militarily. And the wise and older men say, “no, we won’t be dragged into a battle against the Spartans because you need our help. Think of how brutal and bloody this war will be.” But then, some of the younger members of the demos prevail, and they appeal to honour, to power, to competition, and they are eager to fight - to fight on behalf of the Corinthians and to fight against the Spartans.

I think it is as old as civilisation, that is, conflict and violence. What religious radicalisation seems to do is, completely convince people. I have a friend who was a Catholic, but in name only. For some reason he started viewing conservative Catholic videos by some guy named Michael Voris (on a website called ‘Church Militant’). Now, he fits the very definition of a person who is radicalised. He is utterly convinced. You can’t change his mind. But I think there re people who are convinced, in the same way, of many ideologies, of many sets of ideas and philosophies.

So I think a world without religion would not be much better, or worse, than the world is today. I could be wrong - but I just think religion would be replaced by some other motivator for violence, i.e. some other ideology.