Although I can acknowledge that the world is a better place because Steven Pinker is in it, it is harder for me to acknowledge — as Pinker argues in his new book The Better Angels of Our Nature — that the world has gotten better because violence has progressively declined during the course of human [...]
Tags:Better Angels of Our Nature·biological determinism·biology·conflict·culture·eternal recurrence·eternal return·Milan Kundera·Nietzsche·peace·Peter Singer·sociobiology·Steven Pinker·The Blank Slate·Unbearable Lightness of Being·violence·war
The Christian Command:
If you hear that in one of the towns, there are men who are telling people to go and worship other gods, it is your duty to look into the matter and examine it.
If it is proved and confirmed, you must put the inhabitants of that town to the sword.
You must lay the [...]
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Over at HuffPo Religion, Cynthia Boaz has written an earnest piece that implores Americans to think harder about Islam and not simply demonize it. I agree with much of what she says but the unfortunate fact is that her plea will fall on few or deaf ears. Not many religious or political extremists are reading [...]
Tags:authenticity·authorial intent·Christopher Hitchens·Cynthia Boaz·fear·interpretation·interpretive communities·Islam·jahiliyya·jihadist·John Calvert·Koran·madrassa·Milestones·misconceptions about Islam·multiplicities of Islam·Muslims·oppression of women·Pakistan·political extremism·reader response·religions of the book·religious extremism·religious writings·Sam Harris·Saudi Arabia·Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism·singular Islam·Stanley Fish·truth·truths about Islam·violence·zealotry
It is no secret that religiously inspired violence has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths over the course of human history. Sectarian violence is nothing new and shows few signs of abatement. Radical jihadists have not cornered this transnational market, as was recently illustrated in Vienna, Austria, where Indian Hindus attacked a Sikh temple, [...]
Tags:Hell's Angels·Hindus·jihadists·Knights Templar·Set Free Church·Sikhs·violence
Barbara Hagerty at NPR just published an article asking: “Is the Bible More Violent Than the Quran?” I am not sure how one would assess whether the Bible is more violent than the Quran, but both books contain ample amounts of violence and encourage violence under certain circumstances.
If these books are read literally (and not [...]
Tags:monotheism·violence
