Does Religion Have Anything to Do With Terrorism?
by Michael Greaney Religion has nothing to do with terrorism—and everything. Distortions of the teachings of various organized religions have always been used to justify everything under the sun. Similarly, great wrongs have been committed in the name of the family and the State. It should come as no surprise that activities by terrorist or insurgent groups in the name of various religions over the past several centuries have succeeded in giving all organized religion, and ultimately all forms of religious belief, a very black all-seeing eye. If such-and-such can be done in the name of religion, the reasoning goes, then religion must be a very bad thing indeed. Such reasoning, while plausible, is not well thought out. It is a form of the logical fallacy called “hasty generalization.” That is, because we see instances of the misuse of organized religion, we generalize on insufficient knowledge and data, and assume that all organized religion (and ultimately all religion) constitut...