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Arlene Medina John Kubler English 114A 10 September 2013 Critical Response Letter As a Christian, I will always find it offensive when a person tries to categorize the concept of Religion as something negative any person can inherit. Mr. James Jones, you have made it your mission in your article Spiritual Ambiguities, to falsely pin-point Religion as the sole reason in why terrorism continues in todays world. In your article, you mention the reasons in why you believe religion and terrorism goes hand-to-hand however, just because religion has had some hiccups in history is it full enough reason to criticize religion and believe it hasnt affected anyones life or the world in a positive way. Mr. Jones you mention in your article Rev. Paul Hill, who did the most selfish, unthinkable act in Gods name. Rev. Hill even wrote from his prison cell to give thanks to lord to add onto his terrorism. Although, any person can agree that what he did is truly idiotic, is it not possible to get this act from Rev. Hill and make it a chance to educate the religious community? Rev. Hill took his faith into an extreme way and believed that sacrificing certain people would satisfy God, although any right-minded person knows thats not true. Its still possible however, to get what he did and teach people that killing and creating chaos in society is something God will never be satisfied from. Why not get such a horrific event and create it into something that can be learned from, from other religious activists. You mention in your third to last paragraph in your article your position in this view. You state once the nation, the land, the race takes on an ultimate status, it is no longer simple politics or group pride but I argue that, that is exactly why terrorism continues. Not because theyre

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fighting for their religion or because they want society to accept their religion rather they fight for nationalism, the pride they have in their country. Terrorism continues not because religion has something to do with it, but because a whole nationality gets overwhelmed in being neglected and theyre faced in committing the ultimate crucial actions. To solely blame religion for being the only impact in terrorism is looking at terrorism one sided and not as a whole. David Gibson published his own article, Does Religion Cause Terrorism? Its Complicated where he evaluates what other concepts triggers a cult to attack civilians with bombs or other tactics. He contends that, scholars have concluded that religion be it Islam or any other faith is neither the chicken nor the egg when it comes to creating terrorists. Mr. Gibson agrees that religion although it does play a small role in terrorism it still isnt the main factor to blame for terrorism. Gibson also mentions many other scholars in his article such as, Mark Juergensmeyer, who flat out announces Religion is not THE problem. Opinions like this make such an impact not because these people are scholars but because Gibson mentions that he and other scholars have given this topic so much research. Religion has always been an easy target to blame terrorism for. The listing of selfish acts religious people have acted upon has made it easy for you, Mr. Jones to criticize religion as the sole thing that moves people to terrorism and to make a grand statement. However, Mr. Jones you fail to realize that religion isnt the only thing that creates chaos but nationalism as well. The pride of ones

country and the urge to stand up for their nation also drives people to the ultimate actions.