Sunday 22 March 2015

Religious Intolerance

This week's attack by Isis on the museum in Tunis continues the sad story of religious intolerance, by which I mean not intolerance towards religion (most countries have legislation against this) but by religion.

Religious fundamentalists in Paris attacked free speech and in Tunis they attacked democracy. They seek to undermine the Tunisian democratic government by attacking its tourist industry.

Tunisia is the one bright light left shining after so many were snuffed out following the Arab Spring. Tunisia shows that democracy and religion can co-exist. But only if there is tolerance on both sides. Unfortunately some brands of religion are so obsessed with their own sense of righteousness that there can be no other path, no other way than an unbending theistic state. A democracy that works in an Islamic society is a challenge to their own ambitions. (Their own particular theology of course being the only 'right' one, forget for the moment the illogicality of there being dozens of other theologies that also think they are the only 'right' one.)

Religion has been described as a virus of the mind and if this is so then it seems some have immunity from it and some a predisposition towards contracting it. Social conditions too have a large part to play in its contractability. As I understand it, there is no medical 'cure' for the vast majority of biological viruses, the body just has to be given the time and conditions to develop it's own immunity. The question is, do we have the required evolutionary time to develop immunity to the other sort? 

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