Decades on from George Bush’s War on Terror, the battle between liberal democracy and Islamic fundamentalism continues to rage. Whilst one is a political system, and the other an extreme form of religious ideology, is it possible that both are manifestations of the same innate human need to believe in a higher power? US anthropologist Scott Atran contends that a resolute belief in democracy is merely a modern version of our need to have faith.
“To prevent the destruction of human democracy we are willing to destroy ourselves and the world,” says Atran. “All of the ideologies that have been successful since the French Revolution, that have carried people, have been salvational, secularised religious ideologies. That is, each contains the idea that we can save humanity and we have the right message.”
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