Resolving the Challenge of Faith-based Terrorism: Eliciting the dynamic of two-body, three-body and n-body variants

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Introduction

The suggestion here is to focus on the the number of elements in a variety of systems in the light of the long-explored mathematical distinctions between one-body, two-body, three-body and N-body problems. The assumption is made that, as a pattern, the latter constitute a useful template through which to explore n-body systems of other kinds.

This investigation is made in the context of the framework of general systems as currently sustained by the International Society for the Systems Sciences, following the early initiatives of the Society for General Systems Research. General systems recognizes a degree of isomorphism between systems of apparently different type.

The purpose of this exploration is to use the ordering of the more tangible systems to gain greater insight into the challenges of the less tangible systems. In particular the concern is with perception of threat (especially that associated with terrorism) arising from views sustained by fundamentally irreconcilable religions (such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism). The aim is to suggest that the set of worldviews may be seen as either a one-body problem (where there is exposure to only one worldview), or a two-body problem (where there is exposure to two worldviews), etc. The two-body case offers a description of the dynamics of the relation between God and Satan, for example -- or between any two religions that tend to demonize each other. The three-body case might then offer insights into a more fruitful dynamic between the Abrahamic religions, for example.

In experiential terms, the terror associated with the other in a two-body case, might then be understood in terms of the dynamics of a form of "two-body terror". That between the three Abrahamic religions might be understood as "three-body terror". It is assumed that the faithful of particular religions are effectively terrified by the perspective of any alternative.

The merit of such an approach is that it offers guidelines for the avoidance of inappropriate oversimplification, whatever particular resolutions are considered applicable under certain constraints. It also points beyond the tendency towards the search for structural static resolutions to the need to explore dynamic resolutions -- as possibly being the only ones offering sustainable relations between the "bodies"

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