Sibling Rivalry

Why would a physician become a terrorist?

Let's begin by looking at the similarities between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as viewed through the lens of evolutionary psychology. The three religions are more alike than different:

A. Belief in an alpha male — "Yahweh," "God," "Allah," are all names ascribed to this dominant male deity. In scientific terms, this authority figure symbolically replaces the alpha male in our Homo sapien primate group. He is troop leader and protector.

B. Belief in "son" of alpha male — "Messiah," "Savior," "Prophet," are all names ascribed to this lesser male authority figure, who is considered an intermediary. In a sexually dimorphic primate troop, he would represent subdominant males who are as yet incapable of challenging the alpha male for dominance. Allegiance to a prominant subdominant male will bring political benefits once he replaces the alpha male.

C. Hierarchy of dominance — in descending order from deity to worshipper, status is assigned to participating members. This social structure mimics apes in the wild, where access to resources and ovulating females is portioned according to dominance: top male gets food and sex first.

D. Patriarchal society — Physical resources (business, property, money) are controlled primarily by males. First born son occupies top position for succession: primogeniture. Strong emphasis is placed upon ensuring material possessions transfer from generation to generation, remaining within a given surname.

E. Female repressive — on the most fundamental level, these religions are designed primarily to control female sexuality, and thus DNA. Note to varying degrees:

1. Dress codes for women —to hide physical sexual attributes (body, breasts, hips, hair)
2. Limited physical contact with non-family males — to prevent sex (sequestering, supervision)
3. Legal/ritual mating contracts — to ensure sexual exclusivity (marriage)
4. Behavior modification — to prevent promiscuity (teaching "morality" or self-supervision)

Interestingly, the above strategies contradict inate human female sexuality, and the drive for genetic diversity. These conduct codes were created to benefit males by ensuring paternity.

F. Focus on abstract reward — "Heaven," "Paradise," some form of "afterlife." Participation in these religions, by means of following guidlines, promises a better "life" after death. The guidelines to this reward-based system are dictated by human males, occupying higher positions within the religious hierarchy, who claim to be intermediaries between the deity and worshipper; notably affording strong opportunity for manipulation and control. Supporting texts — often obtuse and contradictory — are used to substantiate the guidelines, and incidentally provide a written record of recruitment strategies stretching back approximately 2,000 years, to when they were first invented: "Torah," "Bible," "Koran."

G. Validation by conversion — to question the belief system of these religions is often to provoke varying degrees of hostility from followers: from genetic conversion (marriage/children born to believers), to a desire to convert (missionaries), through to outright anger or violence ("Jihad"). There are two reasons for this:

1. These particular religious social structures can only be maintained as long as participants abide by guidelines established by the human heirarchy. Once the underlying premises are questioned — including the validity of the human hierarchy — the hierarchy becomes vulnerable, and the political power structure begins to erode. The upper hierarchy is strongly invested in maintaining power.

2. Followers are reluctant to question both the hierarchy and the basic spiritual premises (especially supporting texts), because to discover meaninglessness — in the form of contradiction or manipulation or lack of supporting evidence — would be to destroy personal hope...and to negate believers' personal investment of time, energy, and emotion into a reward-based system. Hope, which is essentially the desire to stave off the ultimate predator (death), is a powerful and motivating human emotion.

Back to the question prompting our tangent.

I would speculate Islam has recognized it holds 3rd position in the struggle for dominance with Judiasm and Christianity. Judiasm and Christianity have an uneasy alliance which allows them to currently control the bulk of Earth's material resources...and to agree to not decide which is alpha male. Judiasm and Christianity also control the political power seat of all three religions, Jerusalem.

To hierarchical religious structures, 3rd position is unacceptable.

Even an Islamic doctor, who is materially endowed, will find this position unacceptable...if he accepts the hierarchical religious structure as valid.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: China is communist and therefore by decree non-religious. Given China's population density, this is a frightening challenge to the Judeo-Christian sovereignty over material monopoly. I predict the Vatican will attempt to convert China's people in order to maintian Christianity's power base. Christianity might even realize it is racing Islam in the quest for Indonesia.]