Faith and terrorism

As Britain faces another series of terrorist attacks we can be sure of one thing. The terrorists involved have faith. They are absolutely convinced they are right and that conviction comes from faith, not reason.

Isn’t that the basic problem? These people are indoctrinated educated to blindly accept religious teachings and to reject sceptical and reasonable approaches as sinful. This faith enables them to be used by religious and political leaders and to accept religious scriptures as justification for acts of terror “in the name of God”. Wouldn’t education stressing evidence and reason and outlining the dangers of faith and dogmatism help prevent terrorism?

The problem of faith is not restricted to the extremists. Even moderate religious groups advocate faith as a virtue. So, doesn’t the encouragement of faith, of a non-sceptical, non-rational approach, provide a climate which extremists can use? This is the argument that Richard Dawkins makes in his book The God Delusion.

This is the problem with religious instruction, teaching religion as a dogma requiring faith. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if instead the schools taught about religion in a rational and objective way?

Related Articles:
Putting Dawkins in his place
Overcoming religious problems
Limits to respect and toleration
Teaching religion