Islam and critical thinking

Submitted by Claire (United States), Apr 2, 2008 at 21:35

"Saudis have no emotional intelligence to deal with conflicts."

This reminds me of a Saudi cleric who claimed men can't control themselves, and therefore women have to wear burkas to save themselves. What rubbish. The men I know are thoughtful and self-controlled (unless they just left a pub).

It's as if many religious people are so programmed by their religious doctrine that they are unable to think outside of what they've been instructed to think via the interpretations of that doctrine by their clerics. Although Christianity evolved beyond this somewhat after the Middle Ages, the most public Christians, who have TV shows on major channels, are extremists, but not to the extent that they call on their cult-followers to kill or threaten people.

The more basic question is why is cultishness so popular with humans, and why is it so easy to brainwash people to behave based on what was written by an ancient warlord or power monger?

There doesn't seem to be a lot of critical thinking going on in a lot of religious people's heads, and Islam currently is the most dangerous religion because it spreads so readily and is so totalitarian. We need to somehow figure out how to spread critical thinking, so extremists of all religions wake up.

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