A sincere belief that one's actions are divinely inspired is an irresistible motivator. Even though many parts of the Qur'an promote peace, the other parts of it that support violence are terribly important.
Here are some more thoughts from Ernest Becker's book, The Denial of Death, (the Pulitzer prize winner I mentioned in an earlier post)
Because man is aware of his mortality…he must desperately justify himself as an object of primary value in the universe; he must stand out, be a hero, make the biggest possible contribution to world life, show that he counts more than anything or anyone else. It is natural for man to strive to be a hero; how openly he shows it as a child in sibling rivalry--the struggle to be the primary, most important child.
…from the “high” heroism of a Churchill, a Mao, or a Buddha, to the “low” heroism of the coal miner, the peasant, the simple priest, the plain, everyday, earthy heroism wrought by gnarled working hands guiding a family through hunger and disease… It is still a mythical hero-system in which people serve in order to earn a feeling of primary value, of cosmic specialness, of ultimate usefulness to creation, of unshakable meaning.
Man will lay down his life for his country, his society, his family. He will choose to throw himself on a grenade to save his comrades; he is capable of the highest generosity and self-sacrifice. But he has to feel and believe that what he is doing is truly heroic, timeless, and supremely meaningful.
Creation is a nightmare spectacular taking place on a planet that has been soaked for hundreds of millions of years in the blood of all its creatures. What are we to make of a creation in which the routine activity is for organisms to be tearing other apart with teeth of all types—biting, grinding flesh, plant stalks, bones between molars, pushing the pulp greedily down the gullet with delight…mosquitoes bloating themselves on blood, the maggots, the killer bees attacking with a fury and a demonism, sharks continuing to tear and swallow while their own innards are being torn out—not to mention the daily dismemberment and slaughter in "natural" accidents of all types: an earthquake buries alive 70 thousand bodies in Peru, automobiles make a pyramid heap of over 50 thousand a year in the U.S. alone, a tidal wave washes over a quarter of a million in the Indian Ocean.
Heroism is a line of defense against our weakness relative to the forces of nature. We create a hero system that allows us to believe that we transcend death by participating in something of lasting worth:… immortality projects.
Take this as a backdrop. Add in hatred that is too common in people of any religion. But then add in "divinely-inspired" teachings about martyrdom for God ... and you get tragedies like 9/11.
Tom |
