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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper argues that Blaise Pascal’s famous statement, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction,” is incorrect. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVNoPscl.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
argues that Pascals statement is incorrect. Discussion It is very difficult to argue with Pascals statement, given the things that we see every day: Israelis and Palestinians attacking each other;
Catholics and Protestants enduring an uneasy peace in Northern Ireland; the September 11 attacks that were motivated, at least in part, by religious conviction, not to mention the hard right-wingers
in the United States who would love nothing more than to replace democracy with theocracy. The key appears to be differentiating religion and religious faith from extremism. Fundamentalists of any
religion are dangerous; there is no difference of any real importance between an Islamic fundamentalist and a Christian fundamentalist. However, if we move away from the extremists and consider men
and women of genuine religious faith, then there is room to disagree with Pascal. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, for instance, recently called for religion to be "rescued from extremism"
(Blair calls for religion to be "rescued from extremism", 2008-hereafter, Blair calls..., 2008). Blair said that the role of faith is becoming increasingly important in a globalized world, and that
true religion could "awaken the worlds conscience and help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to eradicate poverty and hunger" (Blair calls ..., 2008). Blair sharply differentiated religious faith
and extremism, noting that in the past decade, we have seen numerous "acts of terror committed in the name of faith," and that there are extremists "in virtually every religion"
(Blair calls... , 2008). He also pointed out that extremists also tend to be "exclusivists"-that is, they believe their religion is the only "right" one and that everyone else is
misguided (Blair calls ..., 2008). Once someone succumbs to this belief, its a very short step to finding everyone else inferior. But genuinely religious people are not extremists, but
...