I originally posted this as part of a Facebook comment on a friend's post, who believed that all religion was wrong and was the cause of the present violence.
I probably wouldn't go that far. But I have some experiences of a kind of extremism in my own life that I recognised and rejected. People ask me why terrorists make me sad, instead of angry. They're a little bit surprised when I say I understand the kind of thinking and teaching that creates them. I feel sorry for them, for the people and teaching they've been surrounded with their entire life. I feel sorry that they've dedicated their life on the basis of a lot of lies they were told, that basing decisions on religion, not humanity, would make their lives and world better in the long term. I'm going to call out a lot of behaviour, not just violence. So if you consider yourself a devout anything, be warned: this post is about you.
I don't have a problem with religion. I especially don't have a problem with faith. It can be great thing and has inspired many people to great art and actions. What really becomes a problem is that part of a which religion encourages you to involve other people around you. That's what should really stop. When you are basing actions not on what you think would be good for people around you, but instead on what you think are the wishes of some otherworldly entity you cannot produce or define clearly, that is a problem.
Let me highlight this with a more personal experience. Years ago i considered myself a devout Christian. I was married and we had a lot of support and friends in churches whereever we lived. I would have considered these people loving and peaceful.
When that marriage fell apart - due to my actions, I accept. Decisions made as a reaction to lots of other stuff that was wrong in that relationship - I only received messages of hate, judgement and unsupport (if that's a word - whatever the opposite of support is, that's what I experienced). The "friends" that I believed I had vanished overnight. That religion taught me one thing - if you don't tow the line of the group wishes of our community, you're on your own.
I walked away from my religion and my faith because I saw two things. Firstly, it was encouraging people to act based on what they thought God wanted them to do. This wasn't their own instinct. Vague religious texts and partisan preaching taught us to second guess our own reactions. This is how to turn a good person into a monster. You put aside your own feelings and thoughts and act according to a kind of "second personality." That makes it easy to justify extremism. When you're overcoming your own misgivings and acting according to someone else's wishes, it becomes duty. You think you're growing brave, devout, pious. In actual fact you're betraying everything that made you a good person: your conscience and responsibility to fellow humans. What did my old friends care if my marriage was over? It shouldn't have affected theirs (Unless, I suppose, it highlighted failings in their own relationships they weren't prepared to tackle.) They were acting out and quoting bible passages because they felt a responsibility on themselves to react in a certain way. not with love, but with law.
It didn't bring me closer to god. It changed me and drove me away from "faith" for good. It highlighted a second factor for me. I saw that I too had been capable and culpable of basing my decisions on an undefinable set of rules to which I felt I needed to adhere. I would say that I only got married at 20 in the first place because of religious teaching. I would also stay I only stayed in that marriage for as long as I did, despite the misery that relationship caused us both, because I felt my religion called me to stay in it. Those weren't common sense behaviours.
So I guess what I'm saying is, blowing people up or shooting them is part of the same behaviour as picketing abortion clinics, sending hate mail or even being judgemental about other people's life choices. You aren't helping anyone by telling them they're living their life wrong and should do it according to a set of rules you think are correct. If you're acting towards strangers in a way that is uncaring and that you wouldn't apply to your friends and family, that's bad; that's hypocrisy. Alternatively, if you would treat your friends your family that way, what the hell is wrong with you?
In summary, faith is fine as long as it brings you comfort, support and strength. As soon as it becomes something you need to apply to other people, it generally brings hate, pain and worse.
So yeah. Be free to believe whatever you like. But whether it's in violence, or just the day to day application of your views to other peoples lives: feel free to keep it to yourself.
