Religious Fanaticism Review of Related Theories
will allow one to murder or torture people when they stand in the way of the religious goals” http:rightreason.ektopos.comarchives2007. In brief, religious
fanatics will allow themselves to torture or even kill people to gain religious goal. Ghassan Rubeiz in his article entitled My God is Better than your God posted on
April 20, 2004, stated that this kind of fanaticism defeats the main purpose of religion which is to give our life meaning. In short, this kind of fanaticism is very
dangerous. Gretty M. Mirdal in his seminar paper on Nuclear War and Planetary
Emergencies entitled The Psychology of Terrorism: Fanatical Identities stated that:
In the original sense of the word a fanatic from fanum meaning a holy site in Latin is a person who is passionately engaged in a religious cause. His
belief dominates all other aspects of life, and signs that contradict it are ignored. Earlier alliances are deserted and feelings of compassion blunted.
Individuality is replaced by allegiance to a group of co-believers, and by obedience to its leaders. To a fanatic the world is divided into two
categories, those that are with him and those that are against. There are either allies or enemies.
This theory assumes that a religious fanatic is the one who is dominated by religious goal and in order to become a fanatic he or she must be able to give the
total submission to the target group and leave the other aspect of his or her life behind. This means that a person with a battered sense of individuality will be
more susceptible to becoming a fanatic. As the person surrenders his or her life to the group, he or she absorbs completely the beliefs of the group, obeys the leader
of the group fully and sees everything that contradicts his or her newfound belief as enemies.
12 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Jacob Van Flossen, in his article entitled Selected Studies in Fanaticism that is published in his web site Return of the Gods web site, writes:
The fanatic, as we use the term, displays a myopic intolerant fervor--with sense neither of proportion nor of normal social priorities. For his cause of
the moment, his weapons are usually chants and slogans, not reasoned arguments. Yet, make no mistake, he may be quite prepared to lie and
cheat; to undermine the social values and destroy the traditional institutions of his own society; to sacrifice friends and family
http:pages.prodigy.netkrtq73aafanatic.htm.
This says that a fanatic is an intolerant person who does not listen to good reason. All he needs are simple slogans and chants to channel his beliefs. They are,
however, not simple in the sense that they are traditional, or that they do only the good things. On the contrary, they are ready to do all sorts of things that violate
social norms, and even to sacrifice their friends and families. Nothing must stand in the way of their belief, not even their humanity.
Wijaya in his book Iman atau Fanatisme translated from Bahasa into English mentioned the basic differences between the true believers and the
fanatics. He states that both the true believers and the fanatics have specific understandings of the word of God. They also have specific ways to search and
apply the truth. However, the true believers realize that their understanding of the word of God is not absolute and neither is their attempt for the truth absolute.
Meanwhile, the fanatics think of themselves as the defender of the law of God, but what they are really defending is not really the law but their understandings of the
law and their ways to apply that law which they think is absolute. The true believers understand that the word of God is perfect, but they also understand that
their understanding of the word of God is imperfect and therefore needs perfecting 13
from time to time. The true believers are always trying to improve, expand, and advance their understanding of the word of God and the ways to apply the truth in
order that it becomes more relevant to the current society and more universal to mankind. Therefore, the true believers are able to be more open to other
understandings or ways. On the contrary, the fanatics believe that their
understandings of the word of God and their ways of applying it are identical to the word of God. Therefore, they become infallible and ultimate. They will not
hesitate to remove those who challenge their understanding. More often than not, these people are very excited to involve themselves in murder and warfare. Thus,
in their attempt to defend the law of God, they break it, “you shall not kill” The Ten Commandments, Exodus 20: 13, RSV 1997: 1-4.