9.6.1 Religious Absolutism
Religious absolutism is all too common, but it conflicts with the Golden Rule. Sometimes external authority is needed to make peace.
If someone is a religious absolutist – believing that their viewpoint is the only one that can be permitted by their God – this does not per se present a problem for society. But if that same person tries to force everybody else to adopt these views (4.4.6.2), perhaps under the misapprehension that converting others is a duty and will save their souls, it would be a breach of the others’ rights.
Examples of religious absolutism
● The Islamic State (IS) aspiration of having a ‘universal caliphate’ was announced in 2014. 10 years later, it remains a “persistent danger”. It is one of the examples of Islamic terrorism described earlier (7.3.3).
● Less publicity has been given to America’s Christian ‘dominionists’, who played a major role in getting George W. Bush elected and in influencing his policies while he was in office. Dominionism, according to Chip Berlet’s essay in the book Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America, is:
“a tendency among Protestant Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists that encourages them to not only be active political participants in civic society, but also seek to dominate the political process as part of a mandate from God.
“This highly politicized concept of dominionism is based on the Bible’s text in Genesis 1:26: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” (King James Version).” [p. 52]
● The second Trump presidency is being supported by Christian nationalists who preach religious supremacy. Charlie Kirk said that “The West is the best because of Christianity. We must seek Christ first, and our national and cultural resurgence will naturally follow. For America to be great, we must remain majority Christian”.
● The conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours is a prime example of intransigence feeding endless conflict, as described earlier (6.6.7.5). On 7 October 2023, Hamas reportedly “attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages” and Israel’s massive counter-offensive killed “more than 65,000 people in Gaza – mostly civilians, about half of whom were women and children”. The PatternsofPower.org analysis of the conflict in Gaza focussed on the futility of the endless violent confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians.
● In 1992, Hindu nationalists destroyed the mosque at Ayodhya – as described in a BBC article entitled Q&A: The Ayodhya dispute.
Arguments against religious absolutism
Most people can be persuaded to distrust extremists who advocate destructive violence, if another point of view is expressed with equal conviction. Absolutism lacks moral and political legitimacy, and it offers no credible way forward:
● There will never be a time where everybody believes the same thing. Any attempt to impose a single set of religious beliefs by force would turn into a world war with an apocalyptic outcome. And some extremists want this: to bring on the ‘Second Coming’, the ‘Last Days’, and the end of the world as we know it. Christians United for Israel (CUFI) express a desire for the end of the world, as reported in 2007 by Max Blumenthal in a Huffpost article Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour:
“CUFI has an ulterior agenda: its support for Israel derives from the belief of Hagee and his flock that Jesus will return to Jerusalem after the battle of Armageddon and cleanse the earth of evil. In the end, all the non-believers – Jews, Muslims, Hindus, mainline Christians, etc. – must convert or suffer the torture of eternal damnation. Over a dozen CUFI members eagerly revealed to me their excitement at the prospect of Armageddon occurring tomorrow. Among the rapture ready was Republican Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.”
● Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy of trying to confront terrorism with excessive force, in Israel and Gaza, has proved counterproductive (6.3.7): Jews everywhere are less safe as a result of his actions.
● Violence conflicts with the teaching (in all religions) that the Golden Rule is the most important commandment (4.2.2.2). Religious extremists would lose support if other charismatic leaders, belonging to the same religion, point out the primacy of the scriptural injunction not to harm other people.
● People who have been formally appointed as religious leaders, but who are preaching conflict, are almost certainly pursuing a political agenda – seeking status and power over others (4.5.2).
● If someone asserts that their role as a religious leader makes them infallible, they are exhibiting hubris and blasphemy. Scholarship might increase a person’s understanding of a religion, but no human can claim to know ‘the mind of God’. Claims to omniscience are absurd.
● Anyone listening to a call for violence should have a strong suspicion that such a leader is attracted by the image of being God’s warrior and the sense of exhilaration and power that goes with that role.
Resolving religious confrontations
Many internal confrontations within a State can be kept in check by using the law, by law enforcement (5.2.5) and prohibiting ethnically divisive language (5.4.6) for example.
Some religious confrontations were resolved by war historically. The Thirty Year War (1618-1648) between Protestants and Catholics ultimately ended in the Peace of Westphalia, which established new borders between States.
The PatternsofPower.org tweet listing on Israel and its neighbours has tracked developments since the invasion of Gaza, including a reference to President Trump’s intervention that brought about a ceasefire on 9 October 2025. That ceasefire was negotiated with the help of Qatar and several other States in the region. External pressure on the combatants was the key ingredient in this example. The US was able to put pressure on Israel and Arab states put pressure on Hamas. At the time of writing it is not clear whether a more lasting peace will be achieved.
This page is part of Edition 4 of the Patterns of Power series of books. An archived copy of it is held at https://www.patternsofpower.org/edition04/961d.htm.