Luna del'Corvo

I agree with you that extremism will always be a problem. However, I would offer that some systems of belief/worldviews are vastly more likely to produce an extreme interpretation. I would also argue that, in the case of the Communist bloc, Atheism seems to have been a tool, if you will, of the Communist worldview. The flaw, in that case, seemed to lay less in the atheist idea than in the Communist idea.

And really, that's what I'm getting at. The idea of Communism makes some rational sense, and I think it can be argued, is based on some noble, even valid ideas. However, experience has demonstrated that when applied in actuality, Communism results in something much different than its best potential. It is vastly prone towards interpretation into a totalitarian nightmare. And that is why we have more or less come to realize that we should never do that again.

How about monarchies? I mean, real, absolute monarchies. Why don't we do that anymore? Not all kings are tyrants, after all. In the hands of a wise and beneficent ruler, unfettered by the political infighting that plagues democracy, a monarchy can flourish. Certainly we have plenty of examples of such through history. So why don't we have absolute monarchs anymore? Because it is a system deeply prone to abuse, because we know that while there have been 'good kings' that have been too many bad ones. Whatever argument one might make about this good example, or that good idea, the system is flawed, and when enacted, all too often becomes corrupt. So we have realized we should never do that again.

However, religion (be it Christianity, Islam, even Hinduism), while arguably based on noble or even valid ideas, and maybe having some good examples, is also, in reality, vastly prone to interpretations of extremism, exceptionalism, and fundamentalism (not surprisingly - with religion we put at stake some form of personal immortality against the threat of eternal suffering - the stakes don't get any higher). So why is is that we have not learned, as we have with Communism, as we have with absolute monarchy, that this ideology doesn't go good places, so we should never do that again?