Identifying a religious motive presupposes an unacknowledged theory of motives

Evidence

Nor is it always clear how a “religious motive” is to be unequivocally identified in modern society. Is motivated behavior that accounts for itself by religious discourse ipso facto religious or only when it does so sincerely? But insincerity may itself be a construction of religious language. Is it assumed that there is always an unconscious motive to a religious act, a motive that is therefore secular, as Freud and others have done? But that begs the question of how to distinguish between the religious and the secular. In short, to identify a (religious) motive for violence one must have a theory of motives that deals with concepts of character and dispositions, inwardness and visibility, the thought and the unthought. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 55 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Attributing a religious motive presupposes contested theories of inwardness and sincerity — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 55; Frequency of religious involvement reveals intrinsic versus extrinsic orientation — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2537

Broader Connections

• Attributing a religious motive presupposes contested theories of inwardness and sincerity #corroborates (0.92) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 55