 22 Feb 2007 @ 00:14
Is unquestioning belief making a global comeback? The growth of religious fundamentalism seems to suggest so. For the skeptically-minded this is a deeply worrying trend, not just confined to religion. Political, economic, and scientific theories can demand the same unquestioning obedience from the general public. Stuart Sim outlines the history of skepticism in both the Western and Islamic cultural traditions, and from the Enlightenment to postmodernism. Setting out what a skeptical politics might be like, "Empires of Belief" argues that we need less belief and more doubt: an engaged skepticism to replace the pervasive dogmatism that threatens our democracies.
Stuart Sim is Professor of Critical Theory at the University of Sunderland. More >
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