Why in our post-911 world does the dark side
of religion seem to dominate?
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Video Text: I think there are many reasons for this, because
religion also has the positive side. Why is the side that preaches
mutual tolerance and love and compassion--why has that side been
silenced all around the world and in the United States? And why are
those most violent forces--for example, in the United States, the
fastest growing religions are the ones that favor a huge military
budget, the need for nuclear superiority. They're the forces in our
society that are most for the death penalty. They seem to not emphasize
or marginalize non-violence and peace.
There are many reasons for this. I think one reason, with which I'm very
compassionate, is that it's very difficult to live in the modern world
as opposed to all traditional societies. In traditional societies you
knew who you were. You knew why you were born, how you should behave,
who you should marry, what your job was, what happens after you die--you
knew all this. We live now in a very difficult society of ambiguity, no
absolute answers, destruction of the family, destruction of communities,
especially through the economy, through the expansion of capital. Our
traditional ways of life have been uprooted. It's very difficult to live
that way. For example, my students are always questioning, "Who am I?
What is my nature? What am I like?" It's very difficult.
Very conservative, especially fundamentalist religions, provide you with
simple answers. Right and wrong, good and evil, you know who you are,
you know how you should live, and you also have a community of people
who care about you and will reinforce that. You also know that the
others are evil, they are sinners, they are going to Hell, you are going
to Heaven. There's something very comforting about that, but it's also
very dangerous. For example, if you have the truth, and you know you
have the absolute truth, and the other is evil, how do you relate to
evil? Do you assuage it? Do you compromise with it? Or do you try to
destroy it? And the model you have in religion today, not only Islamic
fundamentalism, throughout the world in different forms, but also in the
United States is that the evil, the "other," is seen as a kind of
cancer, and if you don't destroy the cancer, it will destroy you. This
leads to a very easy justification of a kind of militant violence.
