Extremism, fundementalism and you

Part of me want to talk state of the union, part of me wants to talk more on religion and part of me wants to talk Carson Palmer but we're going the last political blog wasn't so hot, we've done enough on religion and few of you readers like sports.

Instead today we're talking extremism.

I'm become more of a moderate every day. Or I think I am. I always thought of myself as a central leaning conservative but more and more I'm drifting to the center, which is often a good thing. There are several reasons for this.

One is my friends. Most of my friends are liberals and when one is confronted with opposing ideas all the time from intelligent people it is only a matter of time until one sees merit in what they say.

Another reason was the job I had before this one. Yes I was a sports writer but still I was a journalist. That job requires you to take yourself out of the story as much as you can and try to look at things objectively.

From that position as someone in the crowd but not of the crowd, you get a unique look at things.

In sports, you see that fans of both teams are crazy and the the officials are usually right.

Whoa, we're getting off topic.

Extremism.

It's freaking everywhere. This isn't news and you don't need me to tell you it's usually bad. It is hard to combat for several reasons.

1. Extremists rarely think they're being extreme
2. We live in a society that (rightly) allows people to have crazy beliefs.
3. I submit that most extremism rises out of noble intentions.

And there is the problem.

Let's use hypothetical me for example. I'm Catholic and I believe that if you want to go to heaven, it behooves you greatly to also be Catholic. I want my friends to go to heaven so first I start badgering them about it. That just makes them angry so I start throwing books on the topic at them and they still don't care. So finally, faced with the prospect of my friends going to hell, I kidnap them, take them to the outskirts of Rome and beat them until they profess faith which of course is a lie to get me to stop beating them.

The thing is extremism isn't just, crazy hypothetical me, terrorists and the Westboro Baptist Church.

It's Glenn Beck and Keith Olberman. It's your relative that can't abide to talk to you if you say you're not sure you agree with their beliefs. It's the friend that flips out when they find out who you voted for.

Extremism comes from within. I don't know if it is an intellectual weakness or a strength. To be able to hold fast and strong to beliefs can be admirable, but to cling to a belief you desperately want to be true is weak.

Before I go let me say I don't think we need to come to the middle in all things. There are absolutes. There is truth. Argument and debate are necessary and good and if you really believe something and you can say you've been intellectually honest with yourself about it and you find yourself believing what others call extreme, you've every right to stick with it.

But don't stick with something just because. Allow your beliefs, on all topics, to be challenged. You don't have to feel dumb to find out you were wrong about something. Rather it can be quite a good feeling.