Posted by Stephen Charchuk on January 02, 1997 at 09:56:49:
In Reply to: The particular danger of some religions (Christianity and Islam) posted by Carlos Javier on January 02, 1997 at 04:06:54:
: I so often find people who themselves are atheists ot agnostics writing about how people of various faiths should be able to get along together and tolerate each other's beliefs. They don't see why people can't just live and let live. Those people obviously have little understanding of the major religions beyond the basic tenets of them.
: I was raised as a christian. Even after coming to my senses in college, I allowed my "soul" to be courted by various christians who hoped to get me to "see the light" and join their churches. While my christian upbringing may have hindered my intellectual progress, it did give me an understanding of just what kinds of people we're dealing with and just what drives them. After all, I myself once thought that all non-christians were going to hell. Please listen, all live-and-let-live skeptics, to what I have to say.
: The christians and the muslims believe that there is one, and ONLY one way to their god; i.e. their way. The christians believe that jesus christ is the only way to god, and that is their duty to see to it that all persons on this earth become christians. The muslims have the same sense of duty to bring all persons to follow mohammed, the seal of the prophets. There is no room in their programs for co-existence or tolerance. The fact that the infidels don't want to believe or are too smart to believe can not be allowed to stand in the way of the fulfillment of god's will for ALL humanity. Anyone who opposes their efforts, like biology teachers who dare to teach about evolution, are enemies of god and have thus forfeited any rights to clemency.
: Some of you will wonder how anyone could possibly think in such a way. Some of you will not want to believe this. Some of you will want to dismiss me as simply an anti-religionist. That would be a mistake. Just because you couldn't ever bring yourself to feel a certain way doesn't mean that such feelings don't exist. Just because I don't like watermelon doesn't mean there aren't plenty of people who do.
: Yes, there are moderate christians and muslims who don't feel the need to evangelize. It's lucky for the rest of us that they are too lazy, selfish and complacent to take on the task that their religion demands of them. If they were true to their faith, they'd be making life hell for the rest of us right now.
: An analogy that has occured to me about various religions is that of tumors. Some religions, like Buddhism and Hinduism, are relatively benign tumors. They won't metastasize and threaten the entire body with systemic cancer. Other religions, like christianity and islam, are malignant tumors which pose a grave threat to entire body. They will, if allowed, metastasize and spread cancer where ever they can.
: What is the logical conclusion of my statements? Am I "preaching" war on religion? Of course not. I'm simply saying that we can't be complacent about defending our rights to freely explore the universe of knowledge and to question dogma. We must do our best to ensure fully open intellectual doors for future generations. There are those out there who would just love to take our freedom away from us. Our intellectual freedom is like a shining city standing in the midst of a land of barbarians.
: That's all for today. I'm sure we'll continue this later.
I've met this type and know exactly what you mean. They will quote
their holy books as if they were absolute fact and truth, when in
reality they are only opinion. Using the Bible to prove the existence
of god is like using Mother Goose's Fairey Takes to prove that animals
can speak as we humans can.