re: #491 Fozzie Bear

Its not like the rise of protestantism somehow pacified Christianity. It just balkanized it. Islam is plenty balkanized already.

I agree with Fozzie on this one. The reformation didn’t really slow down the violence, it was the Enlightenment instead. But a new Enlightenment wouldn’t work in our current situation either; because modern fundamentalism (whether Islamic or Christian) was born as a reaction to the Enlightenment principles of religious tolerance and scientific materialism. To try to create modern secular states in places like Afghanistan serves only to through fuel on the fire. The more emphasis is placed on a modern democratic culture, the more violent the backlash of the religious extremists becomes. Enlightenment principles can’t be used to fix the problem because they caused the problem in the first place.