One of the things that I didn’t have time for in the documentary was how nationalism helped to usher in secularism in Europe. Prior to the french revolution and the surge in patriotism and nationalism, religion was a huge part in daily life and played a big factor in the international relations of the day. Even though it wasn’t unheard of for Catholics to wage war on other Catholics, it was far less common and generally more frowned upon. After nationalism, it tied fellow countrymen to each other closer than it tied them to fellow Catholics in another country. It diminished the importance of religion in politics and religiously driven violence dropped. It is unfortunate that the nationalist leaders in the Arab world were oppressive dictators, or non-west friendly.
I think this is very interesting. You don't think of nationalism as being a big cause of the drop in religious violence, but it does make perfect sense. If you are more strongly tied to your country than religion, if given the choice one would most likely choose to fight for his country instead of religion.
ReplyDeletethis is a very true statement, I almost forgot nationalism existed and how powerful it can be in peoples beliefs. This is a very interesting post thanks for sharing I didn't realize it would cause a drop in violence but it does make sense as many hate crimes in America are from people who are religious but it would make sense if given the chance to fight for America over religion and they are nationalist they would choose to fight and the violence would go down.
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