|
|
|
|
Site Map. Click [+] to expand.
|
|
Click 'More' for more detail,
'Next Page' (right arrow), or
'Quick Tour' (control right arrow).
If in a drill down:
you can use Shift-Down or Shift-Up,
or Ctrl-Shift up or down to exit.
If looping over a theme:
you can use Shift-Right or Shift-Left, or
Ctrl-Shift-Left or Right to exit.
When the option is available,
using Alt key toggles the option:
Alt-a - audio,
Alt-i - iconic menu,
Alt-m - music,
Alt-v - video.
View notes for page: Ctrl-Up.
Return to main page: Ctrl-Down
What do you think?
Click Feedback to email us or have your say at the end of most pages.
|
Acknowledge coding help from:
W3Schools: Best free web coding tutorials.
StackOverflow
Flaticon
ExtendsClass - PHP syntax checker
Tree Menu
Copyright (c) 2006 Mackley F. Pexton
User ID:
LFD= EN/EN/ SRC=Opt4Cur
LNM= EN TX#= '' SW#= ''
DVC= 'Dtop' BRS= 'Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)' SWF= 'AllWebSoftware'
SIT= 'GlobalBeliefs.org'
A= 'www.globalbeliefs.org'
RET= '' or ''
SLF= '/EN/4_5.php/top_about.php' CUR= '4_5'
NXT= '5_0'
MVM= ','
'1,1'
'1,1'
|
|
4.5 Modern
Responses to Religion
Version 1.4 September 2020 (Previous Version)
These are the questions we ask in
the introduction (Section 0.1.6 – paragraph 25):
How can modern people be
fundamentalists? How can they take Genesis literally? If we don't believe
in god, do we believe in nothing? Is Atheism a religion, or just a denial of
everything that’s good? Should we accept that life is absurd, like the
Existentialists? Or can we pick and choose to make our own religion, like
New Agers or Wiccans – or religious liberals? Are you concerned about
conflict in religion and politics, the clash of civilizations, terrorism, and
religious fanatics? Or that the country (or the world) may be taken over by
religious zealots (or godless atheists) who will destroy all that is good?
Can we retreat from religion into politics – Nazism, Communism or
Americanism? Can we reinstate the Muslim Caliphate? Should India retrieve a glorious pre-colonial, pre-Moghul Hindu utopia? Should the Chinese empire
return to its rightful leadership of the world?
|
This Chapter covers modern
responses to religion. Modern in this context means from about 1850 CE onwards.
Many Atheists and theists alike believe the world as a whole, and “the West” in
particular, is turning away from God, which Atheists attribute to the rise of
“reason” and the theists associate with rising materialism, promiscuity and
moral degradation. Indeed, Atheism is rising in Europe, Australasia and even
in the USA, where fundamentalist Christianity dominates. But evangelical
Christianity is spreading throughout Africa and the Muslim world is becoming
stricter. This conservative trend is also seen in increasing nationalism and
political appeals to ethnic groups, from Hindu nationalists in India, Buddhist
supremacy in Sri Lanka and Burma, animosity between Shia and Sunni Muslims, and
white supremacists in Europe, North America and elsewhere.
Despite assertions to the contrary, radical
Islamic fundamentalism, which most Muslims don't support, is a modern
phenomenon, promoted by only one branch of Islam, funded mostly by the oil
rich Saudi Arabia. While many Christians have moved on from fundamentalism,
many, especially in America and Africa, still interpret the Bible literally.
|
As discussed in Part 3 (History) there are grounds for
hope. Despite the current discord between and within nations, and the cynical
exploitation of ethnic ties for political gain, we hope that increased
knowledge of the world’s major religions will lead to greater understanding,
tolerance and acceptance, reducing the need for our traditional religious
background to be a major component of our identity. Unfortunately, most of
the responses to religion discussed in this Chapter lead the other way.
We propose to look at modern
responses to religion under the following headings:
|
1. Existentialism:
|
Is life fundamentally absurd? Do we have freedom? Can we
be authentic?
|
|
2. Fundamentalism:
|
Reading sacred texts literally is modern!
|
Is it
reasonable to break down this area into these topics at this level?
Click on
feedback, or add a comment below, to tell us if you agree or disagree, or
suggest improvements.
|
|
3. Communism:
|
How is Communism like religion?
|
|
4. Americanism:
|
How is Americanism like religion?.
|
|
5. New Ageism:
|
How do others find their spirituality?
|
|
6. Atheism:
|
Can Atheism provide meaning & purpose?
|
|
7. Secularism:
|
Can different religions co-exist peacefully?
|
As stated in the chapter overview, this is the current
summary of our conclusions in this area:
Criticism led some Christians and Muslims to
fundamentalism; others adopted political, religious-like, ideologies like
Communism and Americanism; philosophy moved towards atheism; some, like the
existentialists, essentially ignored god, or, like ‘New Agers’, reinvented
pantheism; but we must all get along peacefully!
more Statement
25
Members can tell us (publicly) what they think of this page. How can we improve it? Enter your comments.
Anyone can tell us (privately) what they think directly by email: click on 'Feedback' below.
Be the first to add a comment on this page.
* * * * * * *
|
We
need help (obviously).
1. We need constructive feedback from
readers, whether positive or negative. Use the comments section on each
web page.
2. We need help with writing,
especially Parts 2, 3, 4 and 5, especially from non-Anglos, on
● the
science of our origins and human nature,
● long
term global history,
● identifying
the good and bad of indigenous religions, the major traditional world
religions, and modern responses to religion, and
● a
world-wide perspective on art and culture and the media.
3. We need help to translate into other
languages. We can do a first draft translation using eg Google Translate,
but that needs to be checked and refined.
4. We need administrative help to
establish and run local branches of a Reasonable Global Way: eg Reasonable Way Melbourne, or Reasonable
Way New York!
5. We need technical help, to maintain and
enhance the web site, for marketing and promotion, for legal matters, and to
develop educational resources.
6. We need funding, to provide an
ongoing revenue stream to maintain the organisation and its assets, and support
the activities noted above.
If you can help, click on Help Us
for more info, or click on Feedback (in main
menu) to send email.
|
|
English (English)
Español (Spanish)
Français (French)
