Fundamentalist Christianity and terrorism

I have some further thoughts related to the anonymous hate message that I received (see previous post). I now consider creationism to be a terrorist movement, a claim that I will here explain.

Most creationists would not, themselves, commit acts of terrorism or condone them. But the same thing can be said about Islamist terrorist movements around the world. Only a small percentage of Muslims are actually preparing to commit acts of terrorism. A larger, but still small, percent of Muslims would condone those acts, even though they would not personally commit them. However, a large number of Muslims (though still a minority) are sympathetic toward the terrorist movement, even though they do not personally condone the acts of terrorism. Islamist terrorism would not be as common as it is were it not for a widespread base of economic and social support that it receives from sympathizers.

Creationism, in a similar fashion, consists of a small number of people who are willing to break the law and attack others by whatever means is convenient, plus a large number of people who are sympathetic to them though they would never consider committing such acts themselves.

It does not take a large number of violent people to cause a lot of trouble, especially if those people, such as the Taliban, Al Qaeda, or Christian white supremacist cults, have lots of weapons and the sympathy of a large minority of the population.

Most of us would consider it unthinkable to listen to someone who argues that Islamist terrorists are wrong in their actions but have a valid viewpoint—that is, a nonviolent defender of violent people. The same, I believe, is true of fundamentalist Christian creationists. Creationism is a terrorist movement without, thus far, any actual terrorists. I hope it stays that way, but fear that it may not.