The Problem With Moderates.

Why criticize moderates? Aren’t they the good guys? Better than extremist or hard-line atheists certainly at least? But that’s not exactly the case is it. I submit that moderate, modern, and secular Christians, Jews, and Moslems all contribute towards a safe haven and a toleration of dangerous and reactionary fundamentalist sects. They do this by providing legitimacy to lunacy, a bulwark against legislation and legal scrutiny, and a pool of faithful from which these fundamentalist sects can spring.

This post is entitled the problem with moderates. So what precisely is that problem? Simply put the problem with moderates is that they follow(at least partially) a way of life and a philosophy that had its beginnings well over two thousand years ago. And they do so in a way that is inconsistent with the doctrines and holy books in which they put so much stock(or so little stock). Why call yourself a Christian if you don't believe in the literal truth of the bible. Jesus said and did nothing original or special. The major article of faith for Christianity(or Judaism or Islam) is that they are the holders of a unique and special covenant with an Omniscient God. Loving thy neighbor and turning the other cheek are not values unique to the bible. Not suffering a witch to live? Now that’s a creed that you have to look a little bit harder for. When someone espouses partial adherence to a creed whether because they have found the small kernel of moral or spiritual worth within it, or because it is a cultural tradition that is cherished by their family or friends they are being intellectually dishonest. If moderate Christians, Jews, Moslems etc wish to be taken seriously as being entirely separate from their more fundamentalist brothers and sisters of the faith, why haven’t they released and edited version of their prized sacred documents? Why not eliminate the hateful and scientifically and historically inaccurate parts of the King James Bible and the Koran? I know that if you did it to the Pentateuch(the jewish written torah) then you would scarcely have 2 pages to rub together but still. The reason that they do not eliminate the terribly destructive parts of their holy books is that their faiths are built upon them just as much as they are built upon the kind and forgiving passages. Wiping them away would be wiping away thousands of years of church policy(and when church and state were not so separate) social and legal policy as well. Look at the damage that the Catholic Church has done in Africa by discouraging condoms and other methods of birth control that help stem the tide of aids. Look at the civil liberties that are denied(or hotly contested) to citizens in the US(a supposedly secular democracy) all because of religious doctrine. Moderates may not strap bombs to themselves or throw Molotov cocktails through school windows, but their hateful religious precepts destroy lives and society’s nonetheless. They hold back social progress, and entrench stupid baseless opinions and values in their adherents.

The problem with moderates is that they obscure the line between them and fundamentalists who are at war with a secular western society. They practice many of the same cultural and religious traditions, and often cherish the same things. They make it difficult to criticize the very root of religious extremism, religion.