Quote:
Originally Posted by thedoc
I would speculate that religion has little to do with these killings, it's just a superficial excuse.
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Religion has everything to do with these killings, at least on the part of the people who did the direct killing during the massacre. It is possible, that the leaders of Boko Haram might be less concerned with religion and more with power and merely use it as a tool, but that's just the leadership. In the case of the rank and file, it is almost certain that they wholeheartedly believe they're doing their psychopathic god's work.
In any case, religion, by its very nature, being a method of claiming absolute Truth, is inherently both violent and divisive. Since its based on absolutely no evidence to speak of, it must rely on dogma, faith and our species tendency to perceive patterns in anything we observe. As such any challenges to doctrine are to violently and thoroughly dealt with in order to stifle any threat to losing the flock.
Religion is a poison upon the mind and a noose around humanity's collective necks. Boko Haram, ISIS, Nazi Germany, and the many other madmen who have used it to further their political goals are merely a byproduct of the poison religion produces.
Now this isn't to say that religion is the cause of all of humanity's ills. Nothing can be further from the truth. There are plenty of methods we have of screwing ourselves over without the aid of religion. We have, at times an almost breathtaking capacity cognitive dissonance and self deception.
I can even cite myself as an example. For a long time I supported the death penalty both from a philosophical sense and a practical sense (in this case supporting its implementation as a method of punishment for criminals on the part of governments). In spite of all evidence showing its unjust implementation and the disproportionate number of African Americans in the US being punished for the same crimes white people would get life for, I was still willing to agree to its use.
There have been hundreds of innocent people in recent times who have been convicted of Capital crimes on flawed, false or fraudulent evidence to have me in good conscience consent to its continued use. Additionally, there are the horrifyingly botched executions of last year to consider. Simply put, the death penalty as it is currently implemented in the US cruel and unusual punishment, and thus should be outlawed. I've also of late been looking at both the US justice system and how it's so unequally applied and found myself thinking that our government doesn't deserve the power to kill its own citizens.
This is, by the way a recent change in my thinking in spite of hearing many well reasoned arguments to the contrary. Here is one situation where our capacity of cognitive dissonance has had a negative effect.
In spite of all this, though, I still support the death penalty philosophically, if not practically. As far as I am concerned, someone who kills another in cold blood deserves to lose their life in kind. If the only way to accomplish that is to lock up such people in prison for the rest of their lives, then I can live with that.
Then you have our inability to avoid being corrupted by having too much power or our susceptibility to bribery. Just look at the US Congress. Its members as a whole (with few exceptions) are willing to sell out the country to the highest bidders if it means keeping their power and the wealth associated with it, even at the expense of their constituents, who they are pledged to serve. The worst part of the whole situation is that they are perfectly content to let the world rot in order to line their pockets.
So no, religion isn't the worst of society's ills. To claim that these animals slaughtered innocents did so without a religious motivation is completely asinine, however. While my opinion on religion being a force of evil, may be unduly harsh to others, it's still what I do believe. More people have been killed in the name of one god or another than for any other reason.
Having said that, though, you are almost certainly correct that for some of the individuals responsible for this horrible atrocity, religion was almost certainly a thin veneer of an excuse for their actions. Some probably used religion as an excuse to kill people. For them, if you take away religion, they'll simply find some other rationale. Still, it is my contention that for the majority of these individuals, religion was a primary motivation.
I don't remember who made the statement, and while I am sure I will mangle the quote, I think it should still be said. To get good people* to do evil deeds, that takes religion. It was true when it was initially stated and it still is now.
*It can be argued that if you're willing to commit an evil act, you can't really be called good, but I am not entirely sure if this is an argument that should be made. After all, for most of us, we are the hero of our own story. Most people don't consider themselves evil, after all.
Up to 2,000 dead in Nigeria after Boko Haram attack
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