Jeffrey Nagelbush wrote:
> From all that has been written, it appears that the members
> of the Tamil Tigers are all likely to be religious, even if the movement
is not a
> religious one itself. The question is not really whether or
> not a movement that encourages martydom is religious but whether or not
the
> religiosity of the members make it easier (or even possible) to convince
> people to commit suicidal terrorist acts? I wonder how many of the Tamil
> suicide bombers did NOT believe in an afterlife.
One would assume very few, of course, just because of the high base
rate of belief in the afterlife.
You put this issue just about exactly as I see it, though I wouldn't
say that "the question is not really....", but rather that these are two
separate but important questions.
Paul Smith
Alverno College
Milwaukee
