God's Tribe: Not Just Any Tribalism

I recently revisited the debate between Sam Harris and Chris Hedges over the truth and usefulness of god belief, and I want to offer a straightforward answer to the question that so agitated both Hedges and the moderator, Robert Scheer, throughout that debate, namely, isn't it fruitless (possibly even racist) to focus on the evils of Islam? After all, suicide bombings and Al Qaida attacks are relatively recent, whereas Islam hasn't changed for centuries. Aren't there better explanations to consider? Isn't tribalism a better term than faith for the cluster of dangers Sam Harris is highlighting in The End of Faith?

No. For starters, Harris does note the dangers of fanatical Judaism and fanatical Christianity. More fundamentally, Koranic and Biblical literalism are indeed forms of tribalism, but they are especially dangerous because they include the insistence that they are transcendently true, true for all times, places, and peoples; and they include doctrines ("righteous war", "jihad") under which violence is held sacred. Death is no barrier to the devoted believer, and killing unbelievers can be the holiest of acts.

It's true that these doctrines have not changed for centuries -- the Koran and Bibles we read today are the same as they were. What's different now is the social, technological and political environment: radical belief systems need no longer stay local but can have a global reach. And they can potentially attain weapons of mass destruction. We no longer live in a world in which a fanatical sect will exhaust itself with zealous rhetoric and reckless swordplay within a small valley inside a few years.

The revealed religions merit special concern because of what they teach and avow as recorded in their texts. The texts matter.

If labels are important, label it tribalism. Tribalism is certainly a powerful and destructive force, but we should not delude ourselves into thinking that all tribalisms are equivalent -- the swellings of small-town pride, sports team fandom, and vague nationalism don't measure up to the conviction that one does the will of an everlasting and omniscient god who prefers a world cleared of unbelievers.

And if racial/ethnic even-handedness is the concern, make a point of noticing the dangers of all revealed faiths as practiced by all races, ethnicities, and language groups.