Friday, November 16, 2007

Media Coverage

In considering the question if whether or not there has been a religious resurgence in the 21st century I think it is important to take into account globalization and its effects on media coverage and the way news is spread around the world. Maybe the reason religious wars seem to be so prevalent now is because they are getting more coverage, we're actually hearing about them. Religious wars have been going on for centuries and it is my belief that the conflicts we are witnessing today in the international realm are not that different. What if the same types of technological advancements we have today we're present during the Crusades or the Protestant reformation in Europe? Im sure we would hear about them much like we do the middle east today. Additionally I believe that faith has always been present in humans regardless of how advanced or inadvanced the society has been. For that reason i think it is also hard to say there has been a resurgence because religious beliefs and thus conflicts have pretty much always been present. People have been fighting over there differences from what seems like the beginning of human existence, religion is just another one of those differences people choose to fight about.

1 comment:

bcb210 said...

I agree that religion has always been a reason for war, maybe even the biggest reason. I think that the reason this still could be called a resurgence. The focus in the 20th century was ideological, with religion taking a back seat to Capitalism vs. Communism. Religion was still an issue, but the main focus was for more materialistic disputes.

The problem with religious wars is that they cannot possible be as "peaceful" as an ideological war. I say peaceful meaning that I don't believe it could be possible to have a religious cold war like there was with ideology. Religion is something that people aren't recruited or influenced into (in the same way as communism or capitalism). Those willing to fight don't believe there is a gray area in anything.