religious conflict

[happythoughts 0]

Is it valid to be anti-___? Is it truly bigotry?

By definition, if you believe in a religion, then you accept its text as fact.

Your religion must be The Truth. All other religions must be (part A) not the truth and (part B) part of the plan by the Evil Whatever to lead you away from The Truth.

Christianity supports the idea of eternal torment.
For people who find it intolerable to sit in slow traffic,
the idea of eternal sitting in flames for 10 Zillion years would be all important.

Not only that, the Evil Group believers would be luring your friends, family, nation into this everlasting torment. What could be more abominable?

Another religion is effectively the destruction of all you hold dear. As a true believer, what greater duty than to seek its demise?

Racism is about race. Sexism is about gender.
However, religion is about belief.

If the belief system is used as the foundation for the legal system, then it is more than just mysticism.
The aspects of womens rights for education, property ownership, or just driving a car or talking on a street corner. Ownership of property, child custody, everything.

If the enforcement of a belief system will remove valued rights, it now affects more than just what hat you wear.

Scientologists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus...

There are terrible things about 14th century culture and 21st century culture. No matter which way you want to move it, you are destroying a way of life. True believers have the right to be upset.

(I don't believe in any religion. This is just a discussion of how people feel about that conflict.)

[wmw999 2,644]

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Your religion must be The Truth. All other religions must be (part A) not the truth and (part B) part of the plan by the Evil Whatever to lead you away from The Truth.

I'd have to disagree with that. For me, religion can be a way for me to find the truth. But since we don't really know what the truth is (because it's bigger than we are, and outside of us), bounding it by saying there's only one, and only one pathway, seems a little arrogant.

Of course, a lot of theology is pretty arrogant

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[kelpdiver 2]

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Is it valid to be anti-___? Is it truly bigotry?

By definition, if you believe in a religion, then you accept its text as fact.

Your religion must be The Truth. All other religions must be (part A) not the truth and (part B) part of the plan by the Evil Whatever to lead you away from The Truth.

Many religions are not playing a zero sum game. It's probably a valid measure for the legitimacy - if they feel an urge to denigrate others, they probably are not the chosen one, and more interested in controlling your lives and your wallet.

[skydyvr 0]

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Your religion must be The Truth. All other religions must be (part A) not the truth and (part B) part of the plan by the Evil Whatever to lead you away from The Truth.

The common (but not universal) teaching that Christianity is the only path to truth is the number one thing that has turned me away over the years. There is no sense in it, but preachers everywhere insist it's true.

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Christianity supports the idea of eternal torment.

I guess there are some pretty fiery accounts of this in the bible, but I've also heard "eternal torment" described possibly as knowing that God exists, but never being able to be with him.

. . =(_8^(1)

[happythoughts 0]

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Many religions are not playing a zero sum game. It's probably a valid measure for the legitimacy - if they feel an urge to denigrate others, they probably are not the chosen one, and more interested in controlling your lives and your wallet.

My ex was a Catholic at one point and explained how all the other religions were split off from the one true religion, started by Paul.

My mom was a Baptist and understood that the acceptance of drinking and gambling (Bingo) by the Catholics was evil. After all, isn't alcohol a "gateway drug" that leads to using other drugs and Satanism?

There are bunches of religions that aren't the slightest bit accepting of other denominations. Sometimes, they don't even accept splinters of their own denomination.

[jakee 1,648]

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Is it valid to be anti-___? Is it truly bigotry?

Yes and no respectively. Stupid/ dangerous/ harmful ideas don't get a free pass just because they involve divinity/ spirit/ afterlife etc.

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By definition, if you believe in a religion, then you accept its text as fact.

Not too sure about that. I don't think it's any less irrational to believe a book like the bible or Koran to the letter than it is to only believe bits of it.

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It's probably a valid measure for the legitimacy - if they feel an urge to denigrate others, they probably are not the chosen one, and more interested in controlling your lives and your wallet.

Why? If there was a God type being out there I don't see why everyone assumes it would have to be good.

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I guess there are some pretty fiery accounts of this in the bible, but I've also heard "eternal torment" described possibly as knowing that God exists, but never being able to be with him.

Yeah, but what does that mean? What would you be doing while knowing this for all eternity?

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Lindsey 0]

Racism is about race. Sexism is about gender.
However, religion is about belief.

Racism is about *beliefs* about race. Sexism is about *beliefs* about gender. Religion is about *beliefs* about god and the afterlife and spirituality...all that stuff.

People believe that ALL their beliefs are truth....whether they be about race, gender, religion.

In my opinion, beliefs about religion are no more important than the other two, and probably less so as far as human rights are concerned.

There's always gonna be somebody who's upset, and they have the right to be upset. They DON'T have the right to dictate what other people must believe or how other people must live just because they are upset.

Sometimes you just have to cope with things not being the way you want. Other people's ideas are sometimes brighter than yours, so I'm learning to accept.

linz

--
A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail

[happythoughts 0]

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The common (but not universal) teaching that Christianity is the only path to truth is the number one thing that has turned me away over the years. There is no sense in it, but preachers everywhere insist it's true.

Christianity was just used as an example. The additional impetus of eternal torment makes the urgency of converting non-believers all the more critical.

Religious groups in the US are just as adamant that Hollywood is the Great Satan as the middle east religions.

There are people in the US who shoot abortionists.
There are people who don't want women to have a university level education or even drive a car.
Electricity, and clothing with color too.

Some people are ok with nudity at beaches.
In Europe, they can't understand why it is illegal to be topless at a beach in the US.
In the middle east, they don't want to see an ankle.

It is a matter of two things. The degree of conservatism and the fervor of the devout.

[happythoughts 0]

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Sometimes you just have to cope with things not being the way you want.

Not if you're serious enough. You just kill the other side until they don't disagree.

The Spanish Inquisition ?

"Looks like I picked a bad week to be a heretic."
(For the Airplane fans. )

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Other people's ideas are sometimes brighter than yours, so I'm learning to accept.

True believers don't accept that there are brighter ideas than those in their holy text.

[Lindsey 0]

Don't ya' sometimes wish that Australia had gotten the Puritans and we'd gotten the criminals??? LOL! I think a few generations removed, their ideas are a lot more tolerable. Heh.

Peace~
linz

--
A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail

[Lindsey 0]

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Sometimes you just have to cope with things not being the way you want.

Not if you're serious enough. You just kill the other side until they don't disagree.

The Spanish Inquisition ?

"Looks like I picked a bad week to be a heretic."
(For the Airplane fans. )

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Other people's ideas are sometimes brighter than yours, so I'm learning to accept.

True believers don't accept that there are brighter ideas than those in their holy text.

People believe all sorts of things. Those really fundamentalist folks who want an eye for an eye have to live within the same world as the rest of us. Sure they don't LIKE it, but unless there are enough of them (and I DO pray it won't come to that), they'll have to COPE...just like people who believe black people should not be educated with whites and that women should not be allowed to vote or have jobs outside the home.

--
A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail

[skydyvr 0]

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I guess there are some pretty fiery accounts of this in the bible, but I've also heard "eternal torment" described possibly as knowing that God exists, but never being able to be with him.

Yeah, but what does that mean? What would you be doing while knowing this for all eternity?

Hmmm . . . maybe it means living in a nice home on a beach somewhere on a planet full of folks that know God exists but can't be with him.

The idea of living in a pit of fire for eternity is more bizarre than even that.

. . =(_8^(1)

[happythoughts 0]

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women should not be allowed to vote or have jobs outside the home.

The Taliban or the Amish.

[skydyvr 0]

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It is a matter of two things. The degree of conservatism and the fervor of the devout.

Yep, and their number and/or power base and your proximity to it.

. . =(_8^(1)

[jakee 1,648]

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Hmmm . . . maybe it means living in a nice home on a beach somewhere on a planet full of folks that know God exists but can't be with him.

Woohoo, jackpot!

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[ryoder 1,590]

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There are bunches of religions that aren't the slightest bit accepting of other denominations. Sometimes, they don't even accept splinters of their own denomination.

Then again there are some that are very accepting of denominations such as $20 and $100.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[smiles 0]

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They must find it difficult....Those who have taken authority as the truth, Rather than truth as the authority. Gerald Massey

Part 1
The Greatest Story Ever Told
This is the Sun...."God's Sun"
Bible= astrotheological literary hybrid.

The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the Sun, and pay him the adoration originally payed to the Sun.

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
The Greatest Story Ever Told - This is the Sun

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It is my hope that people will not take what is said in the film as the truth, but will find out for themselves for the truth is not told---it is realized.

I do not have knowledge of the existence or non-existence of a God. I prefer rather to admit I do not know, that which I do not know.

I find it simple to understand why as every morning the sun would rise, bringing vision, warmth, security, saving man from the cold, blind, predator filled darkness of night. Without it, the cultures understood, the crops would not grow, and life on the planet would not survive. These realities made the sun the most adored object of all time. The early civilizations did not just follow the sun and stars, they personified them with elaborate myths involving their movements and relationships. The sun, with its life-giving and saving qualities was personified as a representative of the unseen creator or god "God's Sun," the light of the world, the savior of human kind.

It may be reality (or truth) that Jesus was the solar deity of the Gnostic Christian sect, and like all other pagan gods, he was a mythical figure. It may be reality (or truth) that it was the political establishment that sought to historize the Jesus figure for social control.

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Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man…living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer and burn and scream until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you and he needs money. George Carlin

SMiles