Posted by Elizabeth on January 31, 2000, at 22:18:28
In reply to Re: effects of religious intolerance, posted by Adam on January 31, 2000, at 14:21:43
> I think, exactly as b.b. pointed out, Elizabeth errs when she says atheists don't commit certain crimes against humanity. They do. Human beings from all walks of life can be sociopaths.
Atheists don't kill, persecute, or harrass people in the name of atheism. (I think Stalin is a bad example since he did these things to people for being his political enemies; religion was incidental.)
> I'm not sure if killing people in the name of God (or whoever) is necessarily a perversion of religious beliefs, though.
It isn't, though many try to claim that those who engage in such behavior are not "real Christians" (in order to make their claim that Christians never err a tautology).
> But Christians and Jews alike tend to ignore a lot that textual stuff these days. I'm certainly not complaining. What disturbs me a bit is that so many devout followers of Western religions actually know very little about the history and the literature of their own faith, or regard such matters as relatively unimportant.
I was talking to a friend about this today; she thinks that their beliefs aren't about consistency -- they're about doing what they want. If they have to do some kind of contorted rationalizing to get what they want, they will.
poster:Elizabeth
thread:19818
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000128/msgs/20274.html