AN EXCUSE TO HATE?

Terry

I ask this question rather seriously.

Isn't religion actually an excuse to hate?

You quickly learn US vs THEM and who is who.

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 others suffer.

Doesn't religion consist less of compassion and mercy and acceptance and more of labeling and branding and condeming?

If you answer, "no", why is history filled with religious people who murder? (They don't call it murder, of course.)

When I was an active JW I use to say the 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'm deeply ashamed of that now. But, that was my dismissive attitude.

I could also dismiss homosexuals, human suffering and higher education too. All in the same breath I could make the world go away.

My compassion was the size of a gnat's eyebrow.

Christians and Muslims and Jews can love and kill in the same heartbeat with equal blindness to what binds them as human beings. They all talk a good game; but, prove nothing beyond their own venal agenda in the end.

Or, am I getting it all wrong?

But, wait!

You will quickly answer that secularism is no different; humanism has no better track record to offer; atheists are as bloodthirsty as the rest. Aha! You are right. And that is the VERY POINT I wish to make.

Believers are no better at all. They just talk a prettier talk while walking the same walk as everybody else.

No?

AlmostAtheist

You will quickly answer that secularism is no different; humanism has no better track record to offer; atheists are as bloodthirsty as the rest. Aha! You are right. And that is the VERY POINT I wish to make.

Is it about being in a group? A nation, an army, a cause, a religion -- you're in a group. Those in are US, those not in are THEM. So long as your group is a safe one (bridge club, bowling team) you won't hurt anybody. If your group is violent (terrorist, gang) you'll hurt others in the name of the group.

Religions are just gangs with prettier faces. I shudder to think what will happen if the GB ever decides it's ok to physically attack apostates.

Dave

blondie

I have found politics to be just as divisive as religion, promoting hate of the other.

bikerchic

Believers are no better at all. They just talk a prettier talk while walking the same walk as everybody else.
No?

Yes, er no....oh what the heck, believers just don't know it because God hasn't told them they are not better, ya think?

Kate (waiting on God to talk to me and looking for the gnats eyebrow)

El blanko

You will quickly answer that secularism is no different; humanism has no better track record to offer; atheists are as bloodthirsty as the rest. Aha! You are right. And that is the VERY POINT I wish to make.
Believers are no better at all. They just talk a prettier talk while walking the same walk as everybody else.

Very true.

Humans are humans, the ethics of each man varies and those who lean towards love I prefer, over those who lean towards hatred.

It has alway puzzled me how God would judge harshly a man or woman who has a decent set of ethics, yet fails to grasp his divine nature and plan - thus being condemned to death.

Or is the nature of man enhanced and a new dimension of character opened by drawing closer to God and understanding his divine nature?

Does a man without faith lose part of his heart?

So many questions.

The Leological One

You will quickly answer that secularism is no different; humanism has no better track record to offer; atheists are as bloodthirsty as the rest. Aha! You are right. And that is the VERY POINT I wish to make.
Believers are no better at all. They just talk a prettier talk while walking the same walk as everybody else.
No?

IMHO, this all depends on the individuals involved. As I've been talking with my wife about, the body of Christ is not just a group of people somewhere, like one organization as the WT is structured, but are individuals around the world who collectively make up the church. I strongly feel that not everyone known as Christians actually are what I perceive as being Christian.

Anyway, I agree with the idea that people are people; I've known some awesome Christians, Muslims, and atheists alike, and I know better than to think that, as a Christian, I'm better than someone else who is a part of another religion or is an atheist. Just on net forums alone, I can think of some of the best and worst threads and posts (IMO, of course), showing great care or total disregard for others, belonging to both atheists and people of various religions alike.

Oroborus21

Hi,

I could go off on this topic but I just got home from walking my daughter H 2.6 in the park and I am very sleepy.

I just wanted to mention that not all religions have such a diametric paradigm. For example many "natural" based religions like that of the Native Americans is without such "us v. them" structure.

-Eduardo

minimus

If you belong to ANY group, you are in a club. The club has rules, qualifications. If 1 person cannot qualify to be in the group, in the club, they are looked down to on the pecking order. People belong to groups, clubs to be accepted. Whether persons actually always HATE another is one thing but if you are in a certain class of people, you will have leader, rank and file members, those wishing they could be included, etc. It's that way in all walks of life---not just religion. I don't see why we might have to be so extreme and think that this has to be an issue of hate..

DanTheMan

Elitism is where the danger lies, whether it's Christian fundies or street gangs.

Perhaps our species' tendency towards tribalism will be our ultimate undoing.

Odrade

Interesting. I don't know if I hate any more or less than I did as a JW. The difference is, now I decide who or what I hate instead of just being told to hate it and following the rules.

I don't know if that makes any difference, but if feels different to me. It feels like I hate less.

AN EXCUSE TO HATE?

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