MYTH - Religious fundamentalism begins with religion.

It's really funny that Atheists, who champion so much for facts over faith, are so quick to blame religion and god for the problems created by us Humans. I don't agree with the notion that Religious fundamentalism begins with religion. IMHO fundamentalism begins with ignorance, intolerance, bigotry, greed, jealousy etc , all traits of human behavior.

Even If we wipe out Religion from the face of this earth, I don't think fundamentalism will stop. Us Humans will find new ways to spread our dogmatism. Where did Mao's and Stalin's extremism come from ? They were not religious.Even Hitler's hatred of jews didn't stem from any religion but from 'Stab in the back' event during world war one.

Recently while discussing God's existence(and non-existence) one of my friend suggested:-

"...concept of a rewarding afterlife, as well as the concept of doing some kind of God's work, had a role to play in motivating the Sep 11 hijackers, or the suicide bombers in Israel, or the widow burners in India ..."

That was a shocker, not because I haven't heard that one before, but because it came from someone who really believes in facts and disapproves faith for lack of evidence. Frankly, we don't have enough facts(not yet atleast) to conclude that 911 attackers were motivated by 'doing work of god'. There are just too many conspiracy theories floating around on the issue. Hopefully one day we will get to know more on 911-gate.

On the issue of Israel I don't think suicide bombings are happening due to Religion, I would rather assume that Palestinian people are using it as their last and only resort to protest against Israel's brutality against unarmed Palestine civilians. Infact, LTTE (a Tamil Rebel Group in Sri Lanka ),an 'ATHEIST' organisation, was one of the first groups to use Suicide Bombers.

Widow Burning or Sati is more of a Social issue than religious issue. It was mostly in vogue among Warrior groups during the medieval India where Rajput queens would burn themselves up(i.e. perform 'JOHAR') to protect their honour from invaders. That 'Sati' has happened in the most backward part of India is further proof that Ignorance rather than Religion is the main driving force behind it. If nothing else, Sati is a symbol of Chauvinist male society. In my 32+ years of life I am yet to meet a Hindu scholar who has advocated the practice of Widow burning. And as far as my knowledge goes, none of the Hindu scriptures preach or advocate 'Widow burning'.

Not wanting to backdown, my friend came up with another shocker:-

"...Historically religion has been the best premise to define "us" and "them", and religion has been the best tool to motivate masses to commit mass atrocities against others..."

He couldn't be further from truth, I will never deny that Religious extremism exists and is growing but don't accept that religion has been(or can be)used as the 'best' tool to motivate masses to commit mass atrocities against others. Infact religion doesn' t even come close.

My knowledge of human history and religion is very limited. But from whatever I know I can safely say that historically the scale of ethnic and political mass violences easily dwarf the violence caused by religious extremism.Come April 2005 and we will be observing the 10th anniversary of one of the greatest human tragedy happened during my life time, in Rwanda, Africa and as I post this there is another one going on again in Africa, Darfur. As far as I know Religion is not the reason behind these two genocides.

Majority world doesn't know about this because media doesn't report massacres which have no glamour, after all who wants to see Hutus-Tutsies killing each other in Africa ? These massacres don't have fancy words like 'Islam','WMD' or devils like 'OBL' and 'SADDAM'.

Don Cheadle is also not a very glamorous name, he is just a fine African-American actor but not glamorous enough to win the best performance award at the Oscars.Dont assume that I am going to say that he didn't get the award because he is Black. He and His film went almost un-noticed at this year's Oscars. Do you know why ? Because, The movie happens to be 'Hotel Rwanda' , an excellent movie backed by excellent performance. But Academy doesn't hand out Oscars to movies based on the tragedies of black people of the black continet(it only nominates them, occasionally ), no matter how well made they are.

Here is something to chew on for the atheists, they say religion is the "best tool to motivate masses to commit mass atrocities" (it is beside the point that they can't prove it) and that is why they disapprove GOD and its existence. Let me go one step furthur,Even if I accept tjat Religion is, in fact, one of the tools to incite masses, are they right in rejecting it, if 'YES' how far are they willing to go ?? I say Science is the 'Real' tool (and there is enough documented proof) which has been used as the means by humans to kill each other and other species as well. Guns, Bombs, fusion, fission, Chemicals, Biochemical, fighter jets, bombers and even flying planes(which we know can be used as a weapon as well) are all here due to science, so should we get rid of science then , should we disapprove Science ??