"Thought of the day, on religious extremism: In Israel, radical Jews (including Ultra-Orthodox) hold an extremist worldview based on the literal interpretation of an old book, the Torah. Such people want to ensure that their children will maintain their worldview. For that purpose, they "educate" their children in the writings of the old book, by having them attend special religious schools where kids must undergo daily up to 9 hours of religious teachings and at most 1 hour of secular teachings. In Israel, radical Jews oppress women and children to an extent that is considered unacceptable according to civilized Western values.
In Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries, radical Muslims (including Taliban), also hold an extremist worldview based on the literal interpretation of an old book, the Quran. Such people also want to ensure that their children will maintain their worldview. For that purpose, they also “educate" their children in the writings of the old book, by having them attend special religious schools where kids must undergo daily up to 10 hours of religious teachings without any secular teachings at all. In Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries, radical Muslims also oppress women and children to an extent that is considered unacceptable according to civilized Western values.
In the USA, radical Christians (including Evangelical Christians) hold an extremist worldview based on the literal interpretation of an old book, the Bible. Such people want to ensure that their children will maintain their worldview. For that purpose, they "educate" their children in the writings of the old book, by having them attend home schooling or special religious schools, even special universities, where kids must undergo daily several hours of religious teachings and where secular teachings have been altered to suit their religious worldview. Their ultimate goal is the control the legislative branch to enable a puritan theocracy to take root. In the USA, radical Christians oppress women and minorities to an extent that is considered unacceptable according to civilized Western values.
Religious extremists of any type, including radical Jews, radical Muslims, radical Christians and their financial and political sponsors - such as Saudi Arabian and American ultra-conservatives - are the true modern terrorists. They do not want future generations to appreciate the beauty of the Universe, of Humanity and of human diversity; they want to impose their radical worldview upon others either because (1) they consider themselves to be the "people chosen by their god" and thus empowered by such god to be unquestionably right, or (2) they are charlatans who want to manipulate whomever holds such beliefs to advance their power game. Furthermore, fanatic cynical hypocrites as they are, they want to impose their worldview upon others in the name of their respective god, a god modeled after their own fanaticism, intolerance, ignorance, envy and revenge delusions. Of course, any worldview of this type is totally incompatible with the core values of any modern democratic society.
We need to educate children in the beauty and value of the Universe, of Life, of Humanity and of cultural diversity. For those who consider religion to be an important factor in their lives, we need to understand and accept their attitudes to the exact extent that they respect our culture. They are always free to exercise whatever behavior they may prefer in their original countries, but they cannot be allowed to exercise them freely in our countries whenever doing so collides with our culture. This is the true meaning of multiculturalism: having diverse cultures share the basic values of mutual respect, personal freedom and democracy, living in peace and complementing each other. Anything else is not multiculturalism but human stupidity at best and social stupidity at worst. You see, Morality is not owned by any religion, as Morality vastly transcends religion. Morality is owned by Biology and thus by Humanity." by Jose Antonio Salcedo.
"Richard Dawkins made a couple of TV programmes called "The Root of All Evil". He asks leaders of Jewish, Muslim and (American) Christian Evangelicals why they deliberately lie to children e to a and feed them fairy stories instead of teaching them to think critically about the world. I went to a lecture he was giving at the University of Liverpool promoting the release of his book "The God Delusion" on which the documentaries are based. If you get the chance to see these videos - they're brilliantly put together, (and also not without humour!), do try to see them, if of course you have not already done so." by Tom McMaster.
In: https://www.facebook.com/jose.a.salcedo.988/posts/10212506327923802
In: https://www.facebook.com/jose.a.salcedo.988/posts/10212506327923802
