EXTREMISM and GLOBAL CONCERN

A concept used to describe religious, social or

political belief systems that exist substantially
outside of belief systems more broadly accepted
in society (i.e., “mainstream” beliefs). Extreme
ideologies often seek radical changes in the
nature of government, religion or society.
Extremism can also be used to refer to the radical
wings of broader movements, such as the anti-
abortion movement or the environmental
movement.

Not every extremist movement is “bad”—

the abolitionist movement is one example
of an extreme movement that had
admirable goals—but most extremist
movements exist outside of the mainstream
because many of their views or tactics are
objectionable.

EXTREMISM:
Literally, "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the
advocacy of extreme measures or views".
The term is primarily used in a
political or religious sense, to refer
to an ideology that is considered to
be far outside the mainstream
attitudes of society. It can also be
used in an economic context.

The term "violent extremism"

refers to the beliefs and actions of
people who support or use
ideologically-motivated violence to
further radical ideological, religious,
or political aims.

Violent extremist views can

manifest in connection with a
range of issues, including politics,
religion and gender relations.

Radicalization is the process by

which a person comes to adopt
increasingly extreme political,
social, or religious ideals....
 cannot, at our peril, violate, damage or
destroy.

•Reject antiquated and dysfunctional religions that,

thousands of years old and divisive, are impediments to
human progress.

LESSON 4: RELIGION and the SECULAR WORLD

THE SECULAR COMMUNITY

For those whose personal beliefs
have no religious basis, believing
instead in science and reason
and a moral code based on
progressive values.

The mission of The Secular

Community is to improve the
quality of our lives, end our
needless suffering, prosper
together in peace, and arrest
and reverse our destruction of
the natural world.

a community of people who,

having moved beyond
religion:

•Endeavor to understand and be

grounded in science and reality.
•Strive to improve the quality of our
lives, end needless suffering, find
peace, prosper together as one human
community and thrive in harmony with
the other species with which we share
our fragile biosphere.

•Recognize and honor that which

sustains life, advances our civilization
and enables us to succeed as a species.
•Understand that what is truly sacred in
life is that which in the natural world we
 Secularism, is the "indifference
to, or rejection or exclusion
of, religion and religious
considerations.”

 As philosophy, secularism seeks

to interpret life on principles taken
solely from the material world,
without recourse to religion.

 Believe in God, do not follow a

particular religion, but accepts and
tolerates others' beliefs/ non-beliefs
or religious choice.
The general misconception is that
all atheists are secular.

 secular beliefs. ...

nonreligious beliefs that reflect an
emphasis on living in here and now.
 Secularists use scepticism and
rationalism to question traditional
religious beliefs; they may be humanists,
atheists, deists (believing in a creative
force, or first cause)
 The modern world, in its self-
awareness, is the product of the
disengagement of the secular from
the religious, which makes the
discussion of this issue particularly
fraught. The religious overshadowed
the secular at one point in the history
of the Western world.
 The secular realm then emerged
from under the shadow of the
religious, by liberating the
political, the legal, and the
educational dimensions of public life from religious
dominance.
 We have now reached a point, when
the secular overshadows the
religious to such an extent, that it is
the secular constitutions which
guarantee religious freedom.
 In the heyday of secularism, right after the
Second World War, the progressive
secularization of the rest of the world,
along the lines it had occurred in the
West, especially Europe, was considered
axiomatic. This belief was shared by the
otherwise rival economic systems of
capitalism and communism, and also by
the rival political systems of liberal
democracy and totalitarianism.
 Liberal democracy saw religion as
ultimately turning into a purely private
affair, like one’s appreciation of art and
music; Marxism foresaw not merely its
retreat from public life but from life itself.
Thus the general intellectual climate, in
the middle of the last century, saw religion
as on its way out of the public square, if
not out of life altogether.
 Can you be religious and secular at
the same time?
 It is really possible to
be secular and religious at
the same time. The government
should be unbiased and the people
should be mature enough not to
disturb others in the name religion.
Depends on the definition of religion
and secularism.
 Secular means worldly, non-religious, or not
spiritual.
Non-secular will then refers to being spiritual
or religious and more aggressive and
unfriendly.
 Most religions would like to classify according
to job types such that pastors, priests etc will
be religious jobs and others like businessmen,
lawyers, doctors etc will be secular jobs.
 However, it is considered secular or
spiritual not as what we do but rather how
we do it.
If a spiritual leader does not do his job
with the right attitudes of reverence for
God and loving his ‘sheep’, then he/she is
secular. On the other hand, if a
businessman runs his business ethically
and treats his staff with respect and love,
then he/she is doing spiritual work.
Harking back to Sigmund
Freud
Some psychologists have
characterized religious beliefs as
pathological, seeing religion as a
malignant social force that encourages
irrational thoughts and ritualistic
behaviors.
Psychoanalytic View:
Freud's psychoanalytic perspective
viewed religion as the unconscious mind's
need for wish fulfillment. Because people
need to feel secure and absolve
themselves of their own
guilt, Freud believed that they choose to
believe in God, who represents a powerful
father-figure.
Einstein's view of a person's life
was that the true sign of intelligence was
not knowledge but imagination and he
believed that the only source of knowledge
was experience. He loved telling
stories to influence. My lesson
learned is to practice curiosity and
imagination as often as possible
and learn continuously.
Einstein was driven by a vision.
His goal was to describe all physical
phenomena—from the smallest subatomic
particles to the entire universe—under the
umbrella of a "Grand Unified Theory." He
never succeeded.

LESSON 1_FINALS
The communist manifesto (1848)
• Shows the basic struggle between classes
and recommends action against the
“spectre” of capitalism.
KARL MARX (1818-1883)
• Shows how the capitalist system is
exploitative in that it “transfers the fruit of the
work of the majority... to a minority.
• 1880 reads Henry Morgan’s Ancient
Societies (1887) and became interested in
his evolutionary ideas of society
• 1883 dies before he can write a book
based on his literary exploitation on the topic.
MARXIST THEORY- from-Adams Smith
1. social relationships are generated by exchange.
2. a person can produce more than he requires for his
own subsistence.
3. the power conferred by the ownership of money is
the power to buy other people’s labor
4. while supply and demand may cause the value of a
good to fluctuate, its true or natural value is
determined by the cost of the labor required to make it.
MARXIST THEORY
• Wrote Capital during the Industrial
Revolution in Britain.
• Much of his analysis is directed at explaining
the process which gives rise to capitalist
society
• One of the primary concerns with modes of
production
MARXIST THEORY
• Each mode of production has three aspects.
1. A distinctive principle determining
2. A distinctive division of labor
3. A distinctive principle of exchange
• Marx regarded social system as inherently unstable.
• He found the driving force of instability in the capacity
of
human beings to produce, by their own labor more than
they needed to subsist on.
• He found that the way in which a social system
controlled people’s access to the resources they needed
was equally fundamental.
•Marx argued that the market created inequalities.
The Origin of the Family
Private Property and the State (1884)
= presents the evolution of humankind from
primitive communism to slavery, feudalism,
capitalism, and finally, Industrial communism.
FREDERICK ENGELS
(1820-1895)
 bourgeoisie) of the machines or “means”
of production.

Capitalism as a Conflict of Interest

1. Capitalism arises with industrialization,
when production itself becomes “socialized”,
requiring large numbers of people, operating
machinery.

Capitalism as a Conflict of Interest

2. Control of what is produced, however, is
privatized, or centralized in the hands of the
few , for private gain.

Capitalism as a Conflict of Interest

3. A conflict of interest develops between
workers (the proletarians) and the owners (the