My religious studies teacher was talking about fundamentalism as a growing force in the religious and social worlds due to the fact that we've gone so far away from the "original". She says that the English Christians and the Muslims all over the world are becoming more fundamentalist in their views and more traditionalist.

She used one example of three girls who came up to her in one lesson asking for a textbook because they didn't want to work on a computer after seeing screens all their lives (the girls were born within the 2000s) and religious pupils in her lessons (again born within the 2000s) being more literalist in their views.

Personally, I think she doesn't understand what she's talking about. I can't bring myself to claim that fundamentalism is growing. Can you?

Growth in what diameter? You can't measure growth without time, and not just a short amount of time either because trends fluctuate. We're certainly passed a point where organized religion has had its greatest power and influence on society, but their amount of power is still a fluctuating variable you can't use to predict the future of fundamentalism. The only thing I can think of to help us predict the future of fundamentalism is the variable of education (in other words, the amount of educated people), which consistently grows, meaning it is predictable. If you can say that more non-religious education decreases the amount of fundamentalism to a meaningful degree, then you can predict that fundamentalism is on the decline. However, for that to be true, we actually have to be receiving more non-religious education, at least comparable to religious education, and I would argue that the majority of the world is not in that predicament. In the past couple of decades, fundamentalism has strengthened in the religious population just as the amount of religious people has declined in the overall population. So is fundamentalism increasing right now? Potentially, but it's hard to say. Will it continue to increase in the future? Impossible to tell.

lolno

Quote from: challengerX on September 28, 2014, 01:47:27 PM

Quote from: Meta Cognition on September 28, 2014, 01:45:01 PM

Quote from: challengerX on September 28, 2014, 01:42:47 PM

Take a look at Islam. Take a look at the Tea Party, or just the entire Bible Belt.

I'm speaking about society as an aggregate.

I imagine the Muslims ashamed of ISIS or the citizens generally fed up with the polarisation of American politics outnumber those more ideological loyalists.

do they do anything to stop it? No

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/26/kurds-rush-across-turkey-defend-kobani-isis-syria
Except the Kurds, a predominately  Islam majority ethnic group, are trying to stop them. And don't forget the Arab coalition being led by the U.S to fight ISIS

ISIS. Created by the same people that are now trying to destroy it.

Hasn't AQI recently thrown its lot in with ISIS?

Quote from: Kinder_ on September 28, 2014, 03:56:33 PM

Quote from: challengerX on September 28, 2014, 03:48:55 PM

Quote from: Kinder_ on September 28, 2014, 02:29:20 PM

Quote from: challengerX on September 28, 2014, 01:47:27 PM

Quote from: Meta Cognition on September 28, 2014, 01:45:01 PM

Quote from: challengerX on September 28, 2014, 01:42:47 PM

Take a look at Islam. Take a look at the Tea Party, or just the entire Bible Belt.

I'm speaking about society as an aggregate.

I imagine the Muslims ashamed of ISIS or the citizens generally fed up with the polarisation of American politics outnumber those more ideological loyalists.

do they do anything to stop it? No

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/26/kurds-rush-across-turkey-defend-kobani-isis-syria
Except the Kurds, a predominately  Islam majority ethnic group, are trying to stop them. And don't forget the Arab coalition being led by the U.S to fight ISIS

Hey buddy, I know who the fuck the Kurds are. Don't talk to me as if you inform me of anything when you're the most uneducated person on this site.

My point is Muslim society does not discourage these types of radical extremists, if anything it encourages it. Poverty and a society focused on religion over real education leads to this shit.

So mad :^]

Turkey, Morocco, Iran, Suadi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and other countries don't encourage radical extremists or have them running around. They're countries I would also love to visit. Know what encourages extremism? Fear. When your village is surrounded by men with guns and are known to kill anybody in their way, people won't do shit

Not mad at all. I'm just informing you to watch your tone, because you're very uneducated and it would be very out of place for you to think you inform others, especially when said other person is actually from that region and actually knows his history.

Muslim/Arab society encourages extremism by encouraging ignorance. School is unimportant and science is not seen as important at all. While at the same time religion is regarded as extremely important. Group ignorance, poverty, and fundamentalism together and you have what we see today. Of course Western meddling made things far worse and is still making them far worse, but it is up to the Arabs to stand up to the extremists that tarnish their beloved religion and Prophet.

Don't group Iran in with Arab countries, they're two very different societies. As you can see, there are little Iranian terrorists in the Middle East, and zero outside of that region. As for the government being one of the largest sponsors of terrorism, that's true. But then, the government is hated or at least disliked by most Iranians. There are revolutionaries that regret ever revolting against the Shah and are embarrassed by the state of Iran today.

Wtf is this, the damn Middle-Ages. Bro, I'm highly intelligent and educated, especially when it comes to the areas of history and geography. I know what I'm talking about. You watch your tone

And as I pointed out, there's several Arab countries that don't encourage extremism. What encourages it is fear. Lack of education is part of it but fear is where the blunt force of it is really at. Even if everybody was educated, men with guns watching them and threatening to kill them won't change anything

Quote from: Kinder_ on September 28, 2014, 04:40:33 PM

Bro, I'm highly intelligent and educated, especially when it comes to the areas of history and geography.

And yet you tried to claim it took the Crusades centuries to kill the amount of people Hitler and Stalin did in decades when I) they didn't even kill that many people, II) they lasted, themselves, just decades and III) there's a difference of around 700 years between the two instances.

You going to cry about it? It was a simple mistake. I was thinking 10,000,000 instead of 1,00,000. They killed more but nobody knows an actual number of people killed during the Crusades. The Crusades were not just military conflicts. It's multiple conflicts grouped as one under religion and politics, hence why all eight crusades are refereed to as The Crusades

Quote from: Kinder_ on September 28, 2014, 04:40:33 PM

Quote from: challengerX on September 28, 2014, 04:09:44 PM

Quote from: Kinder_ on September 28, 2014, 03:56:33 PM

Quote from: challengerX on September 28, 2014, 03:48:55 PM

Quote from: Kinder_ on September 28, 2014, 02:29:20 PM

Quote from: challengerX on September 28, 2014, 01:47:27 PM

Quote from: Meta Cognition on September 28, 2014, 01:45:01 PM

Quote from: challengerX on September 28, 2014, 01:42:47 PM

Take a look at Islam. Take a look at the Tea Party, or just the entire Bible Belt.

I'm speaking about society as an aggregate.

I imagine the Muslims ashamed of ISIS or the citizens generally fed up with the polarisation of American politics outnumber those more ideological loyalists.

do they do anything to stop it? No

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/26/kurds-rush-across-turkey-defend-kobani-isis-syria
Except the Kurds, a predominately  Islam majority ethnic group, are trying to stop them. And don't forget the Arab coalition being led by the U.S to fight ISIS

Hey buddy, I know who the fuck the Kurds are. Don't talk to me as if you inform me of anything when you're the most uneducated person on this site.

My point is Muslim society does not discourage these types of radical extremists, if anything it encourages it. Poverty and a society focused on religion over real education leads to this shit.

So mad :^]

Turkey, Morocco, Iran, Suadi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and other countries don't encourage radical extremists or have them running around. They're countries I would also love to visit. Know what encourages extremism? Fear. When your village is surrounded by men with guns and are known to kill anybody in their way, people won't do shit

Not mad at all. I'm just informing you to watch your tone, because you're very uneducated and it would be very out of place for you to think you inform others, especially when said other person is actually from that region and actually knows his history.

Muslim/Arab society encourages extremism by encouraging ignorance. School is unimportant and science is not seen as important at all. While at the same time religion is regarded as extremely important. Group ignorance, poverty, and fundamentalism together and you have what we see today. Of course Western meddling made things far worse and is still making them far worse, but it is up to the Arabs to stand up to the extremists that tarnish their beloved religion and Prophet.

Don't group Iran in with Arab countries, they're two very different societies. As you can see, there are little Iranian terrorists in the Middle East, and zero outside of that region. As for the government being one of the largest sponsors of terrorism, that's true. But then, the government is hated or at least disliked by most Iranians. There are revolutionaries that regret ever revolting against the Shah and are embarrassed by the state of Iran today.

Wtf is this, the damn Middle-Ages. Bro, I'm highly intelligent and educated, especially when it comes to the areas of history and geography. I know what I'm talking about. You watch your tone

And as I pointed out, there's several Arab countries that don't encourage extremism. What encourages it is fear. Lack of education is part of it but fear is where the blunt force of it is really at. Even if everybody was educated, men with guns watching them and threatening to kill them won't change anything

No you aren't. I'm not even trying to insult, you just aren't.

What men with guns? What are you talking about? Fear of who? You seem to be missing the point.

Nah, you're just an idiot. No need to say any more

Ever hear a group called ISIS? They're this group of crazy Muslims that have guns and everybody is scared of them