Is there an excuse to Hate?

Terry

I ask this question rather seriously.

You quickly learn US vs THEM and which is which.

Then you learn that it is THEM who will die. And not just die! They'll be cut down in the streets with blood running in the gutters!

We learn about sheep and goats and hold our nose as we drive past a church.

We learn to value only our own group and not even flinch when those "others" suffer. They deserve it, after all!

Labeling and branding and condeming is an important part of hating.

I heard a JW elder say once that Jews deserved the holocaust because they participated in the covenant with Jehovah at Mt.Sinai and accepted the "blessing and the malediction". By not keeping the law of Moses perfectly and by not accepting the Messiah, Jesus, they brought the malediction (curse) upon themselves rightly! I guess somebody like Mel Gibson would agree.

Dismiss homosexuals, human suffering and higher education as part of Jehovah's plan.

Christians and Muslims and Jews can love and kill in the same heartbeat with equal blindness to what binds them as human beings.

Secularism is no different. Humanism has no better track record to offer; atheists are as bloodthirsty as the rest.

Religious people are no worse, but, believers are no better at all. They just talk a prettier talk while walking the same walk as everybody else.

Religion gives us reasons to love but--doesn't it also give us an excuse to HATE?

james_woods

Hate is a legitimate human emotion - and yes, it is legitimized by both Christianity and Islam.

Atheism could be said to hate ignorance (defined as belief systems).

The only major religion that I know of which does not endorse hate is Bhuddism.

caliber

Religion gives us reasons to love but--doesn't it also give us an excuse to HATE?

"If you feel genuine love for your fellowman, there is no room for hate..... only compassion or at worst ... p ity

Prolonged enmity makes you blind to good attributes and causes harm to your own spirit" ~~ Cal

Terry

The only major religion that I know of which does not endorse hate is Bhuddism.

No, but they have been known as warriors in the past even rioting and killing or approving of killing.

At Harvard in April 2009, the Dalai Lama explained that "wrathful forceful action" motivated by compassion, may be "violence on a physical level" but is "essentially nonviolence".

Here is an interesting article in the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/may/11/buddhism-bin-laden-death-dalai-lama

james_woods

A fine point, perhaps, but justifiable violence is not the same thing as hate.

OUTLAW

DuBs
With a License to Hate..

............................ ... OUTLAW

caliber

"justifiable violence is not the same thing as hate."

God is love .... it is his nature, yet is constrained by his holiness and justice .... insight reveals the glory & sweetness of His grace

much use of the word to hate in the Bible is hyperbolic language

hy•per•bo•le
n.
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect
hyperbolic, poetic talk regarding powerful judgment. Such language is for dramatic effect, and is not meant to be taken in a wooden, literal sense

james_woods

OUTLAW - perhaps it is a little cruel to criticize her personal appearance, but that JW lady in red looks to me like she would be better off WALKING from door to door rather than SITTING on a folding chair next to a Wal-Mart entrance.

UnConfused

Why does the emotion to hate exist? Either GOD or evolution thought it was needed. So yes there must be times when it's ok.

braincleaned

// Secularism is no different. Humanism has no better track record to offer; atheists are as bloodthirsty as the rest. ///

Excuse me? When was the last time you've heard of a war made in the name if atheism? And I'm not talking about Stalin or Hotler, as the former slaughtered in the name of communism, not atheism (which would be silly since atheism is just a lack of belief in a deity). The latter, Hitler, was so religious (Romain Catholic) in his fervor, that his soldiers had "God with us" on their belt buckle.

So again, atheist are as blood thirsty than the spanish inquisition or the other 'holy' wars?

By throwing everything in the same bag, you totally make your otherwise valid point moot.

Is there an excuse to Hate?

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