5 ms·

What is "religious extremism"? That term always struck me as odd. Either the truth claims of a religion are true, somewhat true, or false. If they're true (rea

What is "religious extremism"? That term always struck me as odd. Either the truth claims of a religion are true, somewhat true, or false. If they're true (read: have sufficiently good reasons to believe them), then it's not extreme to live in accordance with them. In fact, it is arguably insane not to live in accordance with them. Imagine if someone said "Oh, I believe things fall to the ground when dropped, but I'm not an extremist about it". What does that mean?? That you only sort of believe that they fall to the ground? That you only sometimes avoid jumping off of bridges? If they're somewhat true, then they need refinement and correction because they contain error. If they're false, then it would be an error to follow them in any way. So really, if what's being done is evil or wrong, it should maybe be called religious error, or just error.

SirYandi 5y ago
I think it has something to do with one's tolerance of other people's version of truth.
- eloff 5y ago
  There are no versions of truth. Those are called opinions if there can be more than one.
  - rxhernandez 5y ago
    There are very much different versions of the truth; even at a fundamental level. Do you know what a reference frame in Physics is?
    - akiselev 5y ago
      What you are alluding to are different observations of the truth. The concept of reference frames depends on the universality of the laws of physics, which by definition means that there can only be one version of the truth. By the time your reference frame catches up to another, the observations converge.
      - gowld 5y ago
        By relativity and quantum mechanics, some frames can never catch up with some others.
    - Bang2Bay 5y ago
      seer and seen are described from the vedic times. there is a third element called the enabler. person, box, light all are required for the person to declare there is a box. I dont see a box is an observation which is correct for a visually challenged person or person in the dark. they dont become truth.
  - SirYandi 5y ago
    Agreed. Although that doesn't stop people having their own perceived truth which is what I was referring to.
    - eloff 5y ago
      Yeah. Their opinions which they believe to be true.
lindy2021 5y ago
The original meaning of "religion" in Arabic ("Din") is law. What you call "religious error" is tantamount to "illegal behaviour" to others.
- OJFord 5y ago
  That made me naïvely curious about 'Aladdin'; yep: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A1_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%86#Arabic https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A1_%D... Seems unrelated to Hindi (via Sanskrit) दिन 'din' meaning 'day' though. (Not that I expected it because 'day' and 'religious' are similar in meaning, just curious because there is overlap, and borrowed terms (well, with Persian, but those in turn often derived or cognate with Arabic, at least in my idly curious Wiktionaring experience anyway).)
  - saas_sam 5y ago
    It makes me think of "dan" too as in the Tribe of Dan in the Bible. Dan = judge. Daniel = god (el) judges me. The Tribe of Dan supposedly spread out and, some say, seeded other civilizations up the Dan-ube river up into Dan-mark. For real.
    - selimthegrim 5y ago
      Wait until you hear about Ta-Allah-hassee.
  - selimthegrim 5y ago
    That din has a short i. The one in Alaa’adin, (despite how Disney would have you say it) is a long i.
    - OJFord 5y ago
      Ah! Ok, dīn, turns out it is borrowed into Hindi (दीन) with the same faith/religious meaning, I just wasn't aware of thag so didn't twig, and yes, thought 'Aladdin' had a short 'i'. (I suspect that predates Disney.)
InitialLastName 5y ago
I would expect that most of the window of peoples' perspectives in most religions fall in the "mostly true, but we don't know which bits, so we'll be tolerant of people who disagree about which bits". Extremists are the people who say "Absolutely true, thus anyone who disagrees on any of it is a *" As an example, I believe that things usually fall to the ground when dropped, but I've seen a number of counter-examples, and I'm aware of some disagreement at the margins over exactly how quickly those things fall. An extremist would say "Anyone who disagrees that things fall with an acceleration of 9.8m/s^2 is a transgressor". edit: format
eloff 5y ago
Most people say they believe some of the ideas in their religion, but often act like they don't. Extremists believe many of the ideas of their religion with certainty, and act in accordance which can lead to behaviour that is illogical from an outside perspective or ethically unhinged. Extremists are the ones who take their religion too seriously. You can be an extremist about other ideas too. Like a raw vegan. Arguably regular vegans too - there's no health reason to be 100% vegan vs 95% - probably the contrary.
tobr 5y ago
I don’t think extremism is about whether the claim is true or not. It’s about what the claim is. If you’re a gravity extremist, it would suggest that your views on gravity are very different from what’s considered mainstream.

SirYandi 5y ago

I think it has something to do with one's tolerance of other people's version of truth.

eloff 5y ago
There are no versions of truth. Those are called opinions if there can be more than one.
- rxhernandez 5y ago
  There are very much different versions of the truth; even at a fundamental level. Do you know what a reference frame in Physics is?
  - akiselev 5y ago
    What you are alluding to are different observations of the truth. The concept of reference frames depends on the universality of the laws of physics, which by definition means that there can only be one version of the truth. By the time your reference frame catches up to another, the observations converge.
    - gowld 5y ago
      By relativity and quantum mechanics, some frames can never catch up with some others.
  - Bang2Bay 5y ago
    seer and seen are described from the vedic times. there is a third element called the enabler. person, box, light all are required for the person to declare there is a box. I dont see a box is an observation which is correct for a visually challenged person or person in the dark. they dont become truth.
- SirYandi 5y ago
  Agreed. Although that doesn't stop people having their own perceived truth which is what I was referring to.
  - eloff 5y ago
    Yeah. Their opinions which they believe to be true.

lindy2021 5y ago

The original meaning of "religion" in Arabic ("Din") is law. What you call "religious error" is tantamount to "illegal behaviour" to others.

OJFord 5y ago
That made me naïvely curious about 'Aladdin'; yep: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A1_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%86#Arabic https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A1_%D... Seems unrelated to Hindi (via Sanskrit) दिन 'din' meaning 'day' though. (Not that I expected it because 'day' and 'religious' are similar in meaning, just curious because there is overlap, and borrowed terms (well, with Persian, but those in turn often derived or cognate with Arabic, at least in my idly curious Wiktionaring experience anyway).)
- saas_sam 5y ago
  It makes me think of "dan" too as in the Tribe of Dan in the Bible. Dan = judge. Daniel = god (el) judges me. The Tribe of Dan supposedly spread out and, some say, seeded other civilizations up the Dan-ube river up into Dan-mark. For real.
  - selimthegrim 5y ago
    Wait until you hear about Ta-Allah-hassee.
- selimthegrim 5y ago
  That din has a short i. The one in Alaa’adin, (despite how Disney would have you say it) is a long i.
  - OJFord 5y ago
    Ah! Ok, dīn, turns out it is borrowed into Hindi (दीन) with the same faith/religious meaning, I just wasn't aware of thag so didn't twig, and yes, thought 'Aladdin' had a short 'i'. (I suspect that predates Disney.)

InitialLastName 5y ago

I would expect that most of the window of peoples' perspectives in most religions fall in the "mostly true, but we don't know which bits, so we'll be tolerant of people who disagree about which bits". Extremists are the people who say "Absolutely true, thus anyone who disagrees on any of it is a *" As an example, I believe that things usually fall to the ground when dropped, but I've seen a number of counter-examples, and I'm aware of some disagreement at the margins over exactly how quickly those things fall. An extremist would say "Anyone who disagrees that things fall with an acceleration of 9.8m/s^2 is a transgressor". edit: format

eloff 5y ago

Most people say they believe some of the ideas in their religion, but often act like they don't. Extremists believe many of the ideas of their religion with certainty, and act in accordance which can lead to behaviour that is illogical from an outside perspective or ethically unhinged. Extremists are the ones who take their religion too seriously. You can be an extremist about other ideas too. Like a raw vegan. Arguably regular vegans too - there's no health reason to be 100% vegan vs 95% - probably the contrary.

tobr 5y ago

I don’t think extremism is about whether the claim is true or not. It’s about what the claim is. If you’re a gravity extremist, it would suggest that your views on gravity are very different from what’s considered mainstream.