Are religious believers terrorists in disguise?

By Steve Cornell

Should those who believe in a God who created the world and to whom each human is accountable be suspected of imperialistic motives? A growing number of people have allowed themselves to be convinced that strongly held religious beliefs are dangerous motivations for holy war or terrorist plots. But are all deeply religious people really terrorists in disguise? Some would like to socialize you to believe this. Their weapon of choice to mislead you is the tragic events of 9-11. After 9/11, a British reporter suggested that, “The real axis of evil is Judaism, Christianity and Islam.” These people want you to believe that the survival of civilization depends upon a relativistic view of religious beliefs. But is it right to use radical Islam to paint a broad picture of supposed dangers of deep religious conviction? “Ah,” you will be told, “Religion has long been the primary source to wars and atrocities.” Don’t be duped by this theory. It is a myth used to deceive the unsuspecting (see: http://thinkpoint.wordpress.com/category/blaming-religion/). Anti-religious tyranny has been the most frightening source of evil in the world.

On the assumption that there is no historically verifiable revelation of God, some cultural pundits want to push the world into a dark tunnel of relativism. Yet, as hard as they push, it never works. Emerson was right when he suggested, “The blazing evidence for immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution.” Popular apologist, Ravi Zacharius observed that, “In spite of the varied and willful attempts made by anti-theistic thinkers to undermine the spiritual into the arena of the irrational, or at best deem it a private matter, the hunger for the transcendent remains unabated. There is no clearer demonstration of this unrelenting hunger than the experience of Russia and China as each has, in its own way, tried to exterminate the idea of God, only to realize that he rises up to outlive his pallbearers.” 

Steve Cornell