The Politics Delusion
Yeah, I’ve been away. I was paying a lot of attention to the House/Senate elections, and writing about them elsewhere. November was a good month, for a few different reasons. And now I’m back again, and ready to cause more trouble.
I’d like to write a series of posts over the next few weeks about a hot subject: the role of religion in our world’s problems. I recently wrote a review of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion over on LitKicks, and stated there that I do not believe religion can be blamed for any of the world’s problems. Lately I’m starting to sense that I hold a minority opinion here.
I’m always surprised to hear smart people say (as, for instance, my very intelligent uncle did this weekend at Thanksgiving) that they think Islam is an inherently violent religion. I guess we’ve heard this old chestnut so many times now that people simply believe it. I’d like to spend some time in the next couple of weeks exploring some actual facts about the motivations of those who promote war or terrorism around the world. Here’s a big scoop: they’re not doing it for God, or for Allah either.
In place of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, I’d like to propose a new topic: The Politics Delusion. I’d like to spell out the ways greed and corruption currently drive — and have always driven — mankind’s march towards war. Then I’d like to examine some of the ways we often gullibly fall for the routine when insecure and power-hungry world leaders use religion to “divide and conquer” their potential enemies. We forget this obvious fact: it’s all about power, and it always has been.
What am I talking about? Tune in in another day or two and find out. This is a topic I’ve been gearing up to write about.