Next stop: Atheism

[Cartoonist]

On April 10, at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did something unusual during his usual weekly address to the deputies of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). He suddenly paused during his address and called the national education minister, Ismet Yilmaz, to the podium. The two men then murmured for about half a minute in front of the huge audience. Muted microphones did not catch the whole conversation, but the minister was heard speaking about "the report on deism" and “the thoughts of our youth about this.” “No,” Erdogan was heard saying in a definitive tone. “That is wrong.”

The report in question, which was discussed at a workshop by the Ministry of Education branch in Konya, a conservative Anatolian town, had made the news in early April. Titled “The Youth is Sliding to Deism,” the document shared surprising observations about the very young people that Turkish society often expects to be the most religious: the students of the state-sponsored religious “imam hatip” schools. The report says that because archaic interpretations of Islam cannot persuade the new generation on issues such as the “problem of evil” (why God allows evil to take place), some imam hatip students have begun questioning the faith. Instead of adopting atheism, the report added, these post-Islamic youths embrace the milder alternative: “deism,” or the belief in God but without religion.

The report surprised and also angered Turkey’s conservative establishment. Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Action Party, which is supposed to be an opposition party but has lately become a staunch Erdogan ally, lashed out against those who prepared the report, for “putting on the Turkish youth the stain of deism, which is one stop before atheism.” A few days later, Turkey’s top cleric, the head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, also spoke on the deism controversy. Explaining that the term implies “a philosophy that denies prophethood,” the theologian hopefully added that once they really understand what deism is, “no member of [the] nation will accept such a deviant thought.”



Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/04/turkey-why-so-many-turks-are-losing-faith-in-islam.html#ixzz5D56MI9GW

[Major Nikon]

1. They should be more afraid of deism

[MineralMan]

2. What I took from this is that young people

are abandoning religious belief globally. Even in traditionally Islamic countries. That trend has been noticed and commented on in places where Christianity is the dominant religion for some time. Now, it appears that a similar trend is taking hold in the Islamic world, as well.

Personally, I find that encouraging. Religionists, though, may not be encouraged by the trend.

[trotsky]

3. Even "tolerant" forms of religion have their limits.

Look at the outrage expressed by some allegedly tolerant believers over mere words on the Internet that are judged to be disrespectful of their beliefs, for instance. Or not even disrespectful, but words of simple disagreement.

So yes, perhaps it is for the best to see more and more people abandoning religion entirely.

[Major Nikon]

4. To a non-believer religion is nothing more than a bad idea

To a believer it’s often an idea in which they have been indoctrinated to involve virtually every aspect of their life from cradle to grave. That’s why many of them take any disparagement of that idea so personally.

As an example, take another look at the so called “11th commandment”. There is no difference between disparagement of a believer and disparagement of the belief. This is because to them there is no difference. They idea is they should be able to promote their belief at every opportunity, and if someone calls bullshit they are deemed intolerant. It’s a perfect example of how religious privilege works.

[trotsky]

5. Nailed it with that 2nd paragraph.

Absolutely spot on.

[Lordquinton]

6. Agreed

That basic questions about belief are either ignorant, irrelevant, or intolerant, or sometimes just ignored.