ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at sacred values as a dimension of religion, beginning by considering how values become sacred and how they motivate individuals. It then focuses on pseudo-sacred values and what happens when people try to trade values for other advantages. The focus then turns to how secular values can turn sacred before looking at the relationship between sacred values and religious hatred. Finally, the chapter explores the idea of uncertainty as the vacuum which emerges when people are unsure of theirs or others’ values, and how uncertainty can then ignite a cycle of hostility and conflict which erupts to fill the consequent vacuum.
