The most vivid examples can be found in Bosnia-Herzegovina and
in the southern republics of the defunct Soviet Union. Through a
religious past to which they have lost any meaningful
connection, Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats, and Muslim Bosnians
try to reconnect to the world of experiences to which they
traditionally belong. In the Central Asian conflicts,
allegiances are confused-Sunni from Tadjikistan align themselves
with the Shiites of Iran, while the Uzbeks pursue the hope of a
new pan-Turkish empire.
In a different vein, the sanctity of life celebrated in Taoism,
as well as in Judaism and Christianity, ends at the doors of the
shiny palace of cheap, replaceable values of planned
obsolescence, eventually of the human being itself. In hope of
redemption, many give their lives, probably not understanding
that they close the cycle of potential practical experiences
just as drug addicts, suicidals, and murderers do, obviously in
different contexts and with different motivations. This might
sound too strong, but it is no more extreme than the extremes of
existence and faith, or lack thereof.
Friends and foes of religion will agree that, for better or
worse, it has played an important role in the history of
humankind. The complement to this agreement is less clear: We
cannot define what replaced, or could replace, religion. The new
world order brought about by the downfall of communism in the
Soviet Union and East Europe raises even more questions
regarding religion: Are the extremist-not to say fanatical- forms
of religion that replace official atheism religion or disguised
forms of ethnic or cultural identification? To which extent do
they reflect pragmatic reintegration in the global economy or
safe isolationism? Practical experiences of religious nature were
all affected by a change in their details: different ways of
preserving religious doctrine, a different attitude towards
authority, a change from self-denial to indulgence, but not in
the fundamental acceptance of Divinity.
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