Deadly dangerous stuff, religion, especially when it intrudes into politics.
Interfaith conflicts are stuffed full of the worst kind of zero-sum games -- e.g., the abortion issue -- where one side's success is a mortal affront to the doctrines of another. What increases the peril of interfaith conflict today is (1) the increasing contact between religions, due to more-mobile global populations and advances in communications and (2) the continuing rise of fundamentalism in all the world's major faiths. If present trends continue, I anticipate a world of religious conflicts that will make today's strife in, e.g., Northern Ireland and the Mideast look like schoolyard brawls.
>An American left need not be dominated by religion, but if it is stocked
>with anti-religious breast-beating, it is guaranteed to fail in a country
>where expressed religious belief and church-going is among the highest of
>any country.
By the same logic, I suppose any advocacy of socialism is doomed in a country that is the most capitalist in creation. But I have a very friendly, longstanding relationship with the notion of futility.
Carl ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com