Ideology: Political opinion one wishes to implement into policy; impose upon others.
Personal opinion: Beliefs one keeps to oneself to respect another's autonomy.
What is the difference between a moderate and an extremist?
In Christianity, the 'moderate' recognizes that there aer contradictions and evils (such as the stoning of disobedient children in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy) within the Bible and that some, if not most of it should be taken 'with a grain of salt,' and does not wish to evangelize or impose his or her view onto others.
The extremist manipulates the moderate position to his purpose by accepting that the Bible is the 'Word of God' and is perfectly content with not only buying all of it, but also has no qualms about imposing it upon others. However, the wonderous thing is that very few people have ever murdered their children (by decree of OT prophets), or even sacrificed their first born (early OT, repealed in later books (a contradiction if 100% of it is 100% true!)), though many are severely beaten thanks to James Dobson's helpful 'family counselling.'
In atheism, what might be considered 'extremist' in religion does not exist. Even Sam Harris does not suggest that we wage genocide. Most of which hold our personal opinions and do not wish to destroy religion completely, but simply to boot it from the public sphere because of the horrible consequences of so many past and present theocracies, and rampant corruption among religious leaders, revealing to those who are not blind that religion is morally bankrupt and holds no weight when real challenges must be faced (challenges of especially temptation: money, sex, and power).
An extremist is basically someone whose ideology and personal opinion are intertwined. Example: I am an atheist who is in love with Russian literature, which is heavily Christian. I don't like Christianity in the least bit but I appreciate the insight and skill of Dostoevsky's work in The Brothers Karamazov and believe it to be the best defense of Christianity. The minute you have decided to ban/burn any media whoatsoever, you are an extremist, not even considering the blood that would likely follow (1933 Germany). From banning and burning The Satanic Verses to calling for Rushdie's assassination.
The minute you wish to impose your own will upon the people without regard for consequence, drunk on utopian ideals, and cease to care for what matters most-The quality and value of human life-you are an extremist.
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