Using Religion - part 2

"I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before? Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us-then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls. The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir." ... Carl Sagan - "Science and Hope," The Demon-Haunted World, pp. 26-27.

Carl never lived to see the new millenium, nor 9/11 but I find his words prophetic. The new obsession with religion of the extreme variety seems to fit. The candle flame is indeed fluttering and the demons ARE stirring.

Religion of the kind being sold by the MSM is not the religion most people observe. The demonizing of all who do not proscribe to the fanatasicm of the extreme is possibly the single most threatening event that our society faces. I firmly believe that the most dangerous terrorist threat facing us is the terrorism of the extreme fanatical fundamentalist religious right. These people are relentless and they are using your religion against you .... against me .... against their own democracy. Make no mistake about it, these people for all their fine rhetoric do not want a democracy they do not cherish freedom and they will not give you peace. These people want you frightened, cowed, tired and passive. They want you to be easliy led.

That is why they are using religion in this way. They do not hold the faith they push, they merely use it. Their deeds are not the deeds of christian men. The death, destruction and fear they sow are not the fruit of faith. They use the terrorist threat as a club to beat you into submission. You want to know the REAL reason we haven't caught Osama? If they actually caught him one of their best weapons against us would have been removed. Tin foil hat territory ... I know, but THINK about it.

I am tired of religion being used as a club. I sincerely hope that you, whatever your faith, are too. It's time for people to defend their beliefs against the onslaught of the extremists. People of faith often think the atheist is the biggest threat to their religion .... I think that fear is misguided. The atheist doesn't really care what you believe as long as you leave him/her out of it. No, the biggest threat comes from those who cynically USE your religion against you.

Wake up and smell the incense.

IA

[UPDATE] Tony Blair apparently agrees ....

"I do not want to end up with an American style of politics, with us going out
there beating our chest about our faith. Politics and religion—it is not that
they do not have a lot in common, but if [religion] ends up being used in the
political process, I think that is a bit unhealthy."British Prime Minister Tony
Blair, addressing leaders of religious and community organizations in London.

Resource Link