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Thursday, August 04, 2005

When people don't really believe what they believe
Posted by Jill | 7:15 AM

Scott at Poetic Leanings pulls the veil off of "people of faith" and makes a compelling argument that those who try to impose their religious views on society need that reflection of their faith because they don't really buy it themselves:

But what lies as the root cause of religious extremism? Lack of faith.

That's right, lack of faith. The zealots in this country, and throughout the world, who must wear their religion on their sleeves, have every aspect of their lives dosed with religion and feel the need to not only believe for themselves, but to take everyone along with them or else, clearly are suffering from a serious lack of faith.

What else can explain the need to constantly shove their religion into everyone else's lives? They have such a fragile system of faith that they must constantly say "look at me, I believe in God, I am pious and you are a sinner, and either you will observe my way or you are going to hell!"

It's called over-compensation, folks, and those that are secure in their faith and belief system (or lack of one) can quietly live their lives according to their values as they see fit. They can worship as they desire, make choices on daily events in a way that they find to be in conformance with their ideas of God and have every right to exist from moment to moment within a framework of faith as they choose.

It is the insecure person who is not satisfied to live their own life and believe in what works for themselves. It is the insecure person who must say it is not enough to pray in church, we must pray in school, and you must, too. It is the insecure person who must have unprovable faith taught alongside scientific fact in a classroom, rather than observing and discussing that faith in a place of worship as one sees fit. It is the insecure person who says it is not enough to refuse to have an abortion for themselves, but who must preclude others from having the right to follow their own beliefs, despite the issue having no impact or causing no harm to anyone else (no, abortion does not cause the invasion of rights of a fetus, because a fetus is not a person and the woman is not a vessel). It is the insecure person who says their faith says the right to die is wrong, so they will not allow the person suffering with ALS to make an individual choice.

Religious extremism and insecurity go hand in hand. They are denials of choice, individual freedoms and personal decision-making. They are at the core, fear; fear that weakness of faith behind the zealotry will break down, expose frailty and leave unknown paths to walk down with no easy answers.
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