Public Discourse
May 20, 2011
Abstract
Given what we have said about "God and Political Science" and "God and Democratic Diplomacy," we should note the downsides to global religion. Religion is a great source of war and violence in the world. Indeed, both religious terrorism and religious civil war have increased markedly during the same forty-year period in which religious democratizers expanded. Here, too, the religious were empowered by globalization, technology, and, in general, modernity. This may seem to be a concession to the secularization thesis. After all, the folks known as the "neo-atheists," Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, claim that where religion persists, it is violent and irrational. But things are more complex than that.
Citation
Shah, Timothy, Daniel Philpott, and Monica Toft. "God and Terror." Public Discourse, May 20, 2011.