RE: Rapture September 2015
September 30, 2015 at 4:24 pm
(This post was last modified: September 30, 2015 at 4:32 pm by Crossless2.0.)
(September 30, 2015 at 3:53 pm)TubbyTubby Wrote: Theists rarely cross that line of questioning anothers differing faith as it runs a bit too close to home. Dismissing an opposing belief must open their minds slightly to how fragile their own is.
Sorry, but I disagree with both sentences.
Have you ever heard a Southern Baptist run down Catholics for being Papists, at best, or Satanic dupes at the more extreme end of the vitriol spectrum? Have you ever heard Catholics or members of certain "high" Protestant congregations talk about Southern Baptists or Evangelicals? It's as if they are referring to a bunch of uncouth, semi-literate savages. (OK, even a blind squirrel gets lucky once in a while.) Hell, it wasn't so long ago that Belfast didn't figure as anyone's idea of a vacation destination, unless they had family to visit. The Crips and the Bloods are amateurs compared to the Orange and the Green. And European history is awash in the blood of Christians butchering each other (when they weren't too busy picking on the Jews) over differences in dogma that must strike any outsider as little more than "my crazy shit it truer than your crazy shit!"
And that's just the Christian intra-faith squabbles.
Christians aren't the least bit reluctant to point out why Jews and Muslims have it all wrong. The Muslims fight with fucking everyone (Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists) when they're not busy fighting among themselves. And on and on it goes.
No, theists cross that line all the time -- just not often in "polite" public debate. Most of them have been sufficiently housebroken to avoid that in the name of ecumenicalism. But behind closed doors? That's a different story.
As for their avoiding debate or publicly dismissing others' beliefs because it hits too close to home or thinking that being skeptical about someone else's faith opens them up to the fragility of their own beliefs, don't count on it. Few theists are willing to say they could be entirely wrong, especially the Abrahamic religionists. They think they are in possession of God's last word on the subject. It's everyone else who is wrong.
Just ask them.
Edited to add: Yes, MysticKnight would be a nice addition to the menagerie. Perhaps we could entice Rik to join in as well -- you know, to baffle everyone with his yogic "scientific" perspective.
