Radicalization and Religion

I find myself  in the middle when it comes to radicalization and religion. This is mainly due to the fact that I've grown up in a religious family and from my point of view, I don't consider religion to be radical.

Consider this: When one is taught a religion from birth to adulthood, that religion becomes a part of their life-a way of living to be more precise. Your actions towards others and the way you view the world as a whole is part of that way of life. This is especially true for Christians and Latter Day Saints. It isn't any less true for Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims, Islamics; or Pagans . All of these groups approach life according to their beliefs.

So where does the radical part come in?

One definition of the word radical, is something that relates to or affects the fundamental nature of something, far-reaching or thorough. By that definition, religion is radical because it is often far-reaching. There isn't one place in the world that is without some kind of religion.

Perhaps we should consider the definition of religion itself, which is: the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. By that definition alone, Atheists and those who are not part of a religion are the only ones who can truly consider religion to be radical, because for them, religion is so far removed from what they believe.

In my opinion, the radicalization of religion is due to the idea that religion itself-the belief in God, a god, or gods is extreme. After all, Christianity is the largest religion in the world, accounting for 32 percent of the worlds population according to an Washington Times article titled " 84 Percent of the World Population Has Faith; a Third Are Christian" posted on December 23, 2012.

In today's society and mainly due to social media trends, it isn't just religion as a whole that is radicalized. Specific religions are considered to be radical simply because those religions are considered to be extreme compared to the mainstream. In fact, the two most radicalized religions are Mormonism and Islam. Islam being the more recent of the two that has received that label because of the actions of an extremist group affiliated with that religion, though it was not the religion itself that committed those atrocities.

I could go on and on, perhaps for pages. A book even.

Let me conclude on this thought: As a society we continually seek for some place to fit in, where we feel accepted and comfortable. Often times that isn't very hard to do, since there are always going to be individuals who believe as we do and who enjoy the same things. When we discover something that is outside of that comfort zone, we tend to feel threatened by it, because there is the possibility that it will change the status quo that we have become so comfortable living in. Religion is that catalyst. It is that thing that is far reaching and affects the fundamental nature of human kinds way of life. Instead of labeling it under the aforementioned definition of radical, perhaps we should consider it to be another definition of the word: very good, excellent.