When people outside of strong religious community discuss religion, they have the tendency to think of the negatives that could come with the religions instead of the positives, the religious extremists instead of those who practice in their everyday lives. This is a harmful way of thinking, as it allows people to forget about a lot of the good that comes from religion, including teaching morals and offering a supportive community for those who need it. This jump to the extremists is understandable, though, as the intolerance and violence of these religious extremists have a widespread negative effect on all of society. Throughout his discussion on Fundamentalism, Steve Bruce talks about the ever changing landscape of religion and about the
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One group member, in discussing the effects the US had on the Islamic religion, said that “it created a wrath in Islam beliefs which then created terrorism towards the United States, hence the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the Twin Towers in 2001, and even the bombing in Brooklyn just a year or two ago.” Another group member argues with that point, saying that the violence is not caused by fundamentalists, but that “both groups of people are marked by is intolerance for anything outside of their own strict beliefs, and depending on the circumstances around them, their culture can thrive on social unrest, or be dismissed as nothing at all.” It is the second point, the idea that the intolerance of fundamentalists allows them power within their society, that I think is more accurate. In the reading, Bruce points out that most of the violence attributed with fundamentalists is on the Islamic side, as most Christians are pacifistic. I would even suggest that the violence that comes from the communal fundamentalism in the case of the Islamic faith does not come from the fight to maintain the religion, as much as it does from a culture that is more accepting of violence than our …show more content…
Those who are fighting for a more conservative religion, those who are fighting hard to keep their religious community strong and to spread their ideals, are not bad or dangerous people. While these zealots, as Bruce refers to them, have different ideas and passions than the standard person in our society, they are not any different from people who are fighting on the opposite side. One of the benefits of our modern society is that we are given a chance to fight for what we believe is the moral and right thing and that is what fundamentalists are trying to do. In some ways, fundamentalists have a positive impact on our general society, as they force groups of people to think of issues from a different perspective and to compromise to create the most popular outcome. In the Christian religion, fundamentalists are a push towards a stronger community and a reason to reflect on what parts of the community could remain more traditional. It is almost always a benefit to have a group to argue with you and to push you to look at problems from a different perspective and that is what fundamentalists are doing in our modern society. In some cases, as discussed by Bruce in the text, they are dangerous and overly zealous, but if there is more education about these groups and more
One group member, in discussing the effects the US had on the Islamic religion, said that “it created a wrath in Islam beliefs which then created terrorism towards the United States, hence the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the Twin Towers in 2001, and even the bombing in Brooklyn just a year or two ago.” Another group member argues with that point, saying that the violence is not caused by fundamentalists, but that “both groups of people are marked by is intolerance for anything outside of their own strict beliefs, and depending on the circumstances around them, their culture can thrive on social unrest, or be dismissed as nothing at all.” It is the second point, the idea that the intolerance of fundamentalists allows them power within their society, that I think is more accurate. In the reading, Bruce points out that most of the violence attributed with fundamentalists is on the Islamic side, as most Christians are pacifistic. I would even suggest that the violence that comes from the communal fundamentalism in the case of the Islamic faith does not come from the fight to maintain the religion, as much as it does from a culture that is more accepting of violence than our …show more content…
Those who are fighting for a more conservative religion, those who are fighting hard to keep their religious community strong and to spread their ideals, are not bad or dangerous people. While these zealots, as Bruce refers to them, have different ideas and passions than the standard person in our society, they are not any different from people who are fighting on the opposite side. One of the benefits of our modern society is that we are given a chance to fight for what we believe is the moral and right thing and that is what fundamentalists are trying to do. In some ways, fundamentalists have a positive impact on our general society, as they force groups of people to think of issues from a different perspective and to compromise to create the most popular outcome. In the Christian religion, fundamentalists are a push towards a stronger community and a reason to reflect on what parts of the community could remain more traditional. It is almost always a benefit to have a group to argue with you and to push you to look at problems from a different perspective and that is what fundamentalists are doing in our modern society. In some cases, as discussed by Bruce in the text, they are dangerous and overly zealous, but if there is more education about these groups and more