The Battle for God

The Battle for God

1. Secularism is the indifference to or exclusion of a religion. It is the consideration of the well being of human kind before religion. Secularism, for example, can be the belief in a God, but a God not specific to a certain religion. A secularist would believe a God existed and controlled everyone’s lives, but he would have no specific religious significance. A person who believes in secularism might understand religion as a secondary concern in their lives. It would not have more authority or importance than for example education or civil rights, however it would still exist. One might believe God has a destiny for every human being however, a secularist might not feel the need to get heavily involved with the religion.

2. Martin Marty and Scott Appleby believe all late-twentieth century fundamentalist groups had many things in common. They believe a fundamentalist groups’ “spirituality”[1] has surfaced due to a specific incident. They are angered by this incident and begin battling it out with people who completely disrespect and disregard religion. The battle is a “war between the forces of good and evil”.[2] The whole idea of fundamentalism is based on past idea’s, therefore fundamentalist groups go into the past for protection from the evil enemies. They separate themselves from the rest of society and form their own culture.

3. Armstrong believes that currently, people are undergoing a great transition, a transition from ancient to modern religion. People are finding that religious practices accepted hundreds of years ago are no longer fulfilling their religious needs. Ancient religion does not provide the modern human being with satisfactory enlightenment and rich beliefs they need to live and survive. I strongly disagree with Armstrong’s theory. A substantial portion of the world today currently believes in religions that were practiced before the pilgrims created the first colony in Massachusetts in 1620...