Here was an interesting response to the Dawkins' article on the PESTS listserve. Because this article also is being discussed on TIPS, I thought some of you might like to see the response. Jeff -- Jeffry P. Ricker, Ph.D. Office Phone: (480) 423-6213 9000 E. Chaparral Rd. FAX Number: (480) 423-6298 Psychology Department [EMAIL PROTECTED] Scottsdale Community College Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626 Listowner: Psychologists Educating Students to Think Skeptically (PESTS) http://www.sc.maricopa.edu/sbscience/pests/index.html
Jeff Ricker forwarded the following article by Richard Dawkins to the list: > Religion's misguided missiles: Promise a young man that death is not the > end and he will willingly cause disaster > http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4257777,00.html Dawkins' contention appears to be that religious belief in an afterlife, and especially the variant he appears to attribute to all or part of Islam, renders the holder especially prone to committing suicide attacks: "If death is final, a rational agent can be expected to value his life highly and be reluctant to risk it. This makes the world a safer place, just as a plane is safer if its hijacker wants to survive. At the other extreme, if a significant number of people convince themselves, or are convinced by their priests, that a martyr's death is equivalent to pressing the hyperspace button and zooming through a wormhole to another universe, it can make the world a very dangerous place. Especially if they also believe that that other universe is a paradisical escape from the tribulations of the real world. Top it off with sincerely believed, if ludicrous and degrading to women, sexual promises, and is it any wonder that naive and frustrated young men are clamouring to be selected for suicide missions?" However, an article in 'Jane's Intelligence Review' provides the following breakdown of the number of suicide bombings between 1980 and 2000: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka and in India 168 Hizbullah and pro-Syrian groups in Lebanon, Kuwait and Argentina 52 Hamas in Israel 22 The Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in Turkey 15 The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Israel 8 Al Quaida in East Africa 2 The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) in Croatia 1 The Islamic Group (IG) in Pakistan 1 Barbar Khalsa International (BKI) in India 1 The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in Algeria 1 <http://www.janes.com/security/regional_security/news/usscole/jir001020_1_n.sht ml> If this information is correct, the large majority of the suicide attacks in the last twenty years have been carried out by the Tamil Tigers. And, as far as I am aware, the Tamil Tigers is a secular organisation of ethnic nationalists and not a religious organisation: see their publication 'A Struggle For Justice' <http://www.eelam.com/freedom_struggle/ltte_publ/strug_for_just> and the news item at <http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_591000/591864.s tm>.> Wayne Spencer
