All religions have one central element: belief. No matter what the faith, the essence it that there must be belief in the tenets.
When one looks critically at religion... all religion... one is forced to conclude that most faiths require suspension of disbelief. That is to say that your senses and your experiences tell you one thing and your faith requires you to believe another.
Perhaps that is why the Western world... where people have largely compartmentalized their world views into the scientific/rational and the religious/belief to avoid obvious conflicts... has such great difficulty dealing with the Islamists belief-based approach to life.
In the West, we accept uncertainty even though religion preaches certainty. The Islamist who believes killing and suicide (martyrdom) is an essential part of his religion lives with certainty only.
The difference between the concept of 'knowing' and the concept of 'being certain' isn't of any great importance at all, except where "I know" is meant to mean: I can't be wrong.Of course, that doesn't mean the leaders of organizations like al Qaeda and Hamas actually believe in committing suicide for their cause. They are satisfied using dumb schmucks who do.Ludwig Wittgenstein[source]
The real danger to the West is not the actual military capabilities of these schmuck-raisers. It is believing that we can't stop them so we must try to accommodate them.
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