Oh, goody. A quiz. I love quizzes. This one comes from R.J. Eskow over at The Huffington Post [15 Questions Militant Atheists Should Ask Before Trying to "Destroy Religion"].
Here are my answers (yes, I know he didn't request answers, but what the heck; and, no, I'm not admitting to being a militant atheist, I just like quizzes) ....
- somewhere in between
- other forces
- no
- considerable
- no
- additional action
- neither
- no
- both
- not all and not just fundamentalists
- yes
- yes, no
- both are needed
- the latter
- eradication of religion will improve mental health
3 comments :
Interestingly enough, the Crusades do appear to have been mostly motivated by religion. There weren't all that many material rewards for the knights who went on crusade, and the costs for them were pretty high. There's more about that here: link
Here's an interesting quote:
But why would the crusade make [Pope] Urban so popular? The answer is that by making warfare sacred under the right conditions, he was able to address the spiritual dilemma of medieval knights whose violence had been tearing apart Christendom for the past century -- and which the Peace of God movement had tried in vain to remedy. "If you must have blood, bathe in the blood of the infidels; you who have been the terror of your fellow men, go and fight against the barbarians." By demonizing the Islamic world, Urban was able to channel violence abroad and make bloodshed -- for the first time ever -- not merely justified-but-evil (per Augustine), but holy and penitential. In the words of a medieval preacher: "By this kind of warfare, people make their way to heaven who perhaps would never reach it by another road."
This question from Eskow's list is interesting:
"Does the absence of religion as a motivator reduce the likelihood of war, as the militants suggest - or not? Suggested countries of study: Cambodia, China/Tibet, USSR.)"
I notice that, rather tellingly, European countries are not on that list. There's something telling there. It seems to me that there is a vast difference between countries that had atheism as part of the official ideology, like the USSR, and countries where atheism didn't come in by force, but simply by the majority of people drifting into it, like those in Europe. The latter have done much better, by far.
Yeah, but since I only answered one question, I got 100% right.
My comments are much more verbose. This is probably a situation where one could reduce the fraction first .... Mr. Eskow's 15 items could be reduced to two or three. Anyway, here are my 30 cents (two per comment) if you are interested:
http://gregladen.com/wordpress/?p=100
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