This is a TIME article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...1466-3,00.html

It tackles the question of how religions, be they Judaism, Christianity or Islam, can influence international politics and decisions made by statesmen like G. W. Bush or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Quote Originally Posted by Times
How, after all, can you engage in a rational dialogue with a man like Ahmadinejad, who believes that Armageddon is near and that it is his duty to accelerate it? How can Israel negotiate with people who are certain their instructions come from heaven and so decree that Israel must not exist in Muslim lands? Equally, of course, how can one negotiate with fundamentalist Jews who claim that the West Bank is theirs forever by biblical mandate? Or with Fundamentalist Christians who believe that Israel's expansion is a biblical necessity rather than a strategic judgment?

There is, however, a way out. And it will come from the only place it can come from--the minds and souls of people of faith. It will come from the much derided moderate Muslims, tolerant Jews and humble Christians. The alternative to the secular-fundamentalist death spiral is something called spiritual humility and sincere religious doubt. Fundamentalism is not the only valid form of faith, and to say it is, is the great lie of our time.
Please read the whole article as it points out to how people seem to more drawn these days to fundamentalist like, no compromise, toi the letter of the Book strains of religions rather than moderate, doubting, open strains... And how this makes negociation and talk less and less able to solve problems.

And it provides a very good rationale, ala Pseudo-Areopagos (spelling?), for doubt and modaration...

Quote Originally Posted by Times
ut all those alternative forms come back to the same root. Those kinds of faith recognize one thing, first of all, about the nature of God and humankind, and it is this: If God really is God, then God must, by definition, surpass our human understanding. Not entirely. We have Scripture; we have reason; we have religious authority; we have our own spiritual experiences of the divine. But there is still something we will never grasp, something we can never know--because God is beyond our human categories. And if God is beyond our categories, then God cannot be captured for certain. We cannot know with the kind of surety that allows us to proclaim truth with a capital T. There will always be something that eludes us. If there weren't, it would not be God.
Man's humanity resides in doubt.
Quote Originally Posted by Times
That faith begins with the assumption that the human soul is fallible, that it can delude itself, make mistakes and see only so far ahead. (...)

In that type of faith, doubt is not a threat. If we have never doubted, how can we say we have really believed?
SDo, any thoughtsd, comments? I found it a very compelling argument for moderation and humility in one's faith and/or beliefs. And a plea for the lessening of the influence faith has on politics, especially international politics...