(November 16, 2015 at 5:12 pm)Evie Wrote: Religious scriptures say different things in them. These differences matter. The abrahamic religions are certainly the most harmful but that doesn't make them all exactly equal.
Sam Harris Wrote:"Religion" is a nearly useless term. It's a term like "sports". Now there are sports like Badminton and sports like Thai Boxing, and they have almost nothing in common apart from breathing. There are sports that are just synonymous with the risk of physical injury or even death … There is, I'm happy to say, a religion of peace in this world, but it's not Islam. The claim that Islam is a religion of peace that we hear ceaselessly reiterated is completely delusional. Now Jainism actually is a religion of peace. The core principle of Jainism is non-violence. Gandhi got his non-violence from the Jains. The crazier you get as a Jain, the less we have to worry about you. Jain extremists are paralysed by their pacifism. Jain extremists can't take their eyes off the ground when they walk lest they step on an ant... Needless to say they are vegetarian. So the problem is not religious extremism, because extremism is not a problem if your core beliefs are truly non-violent. The problem isn't fundamentalism. We often hear this said; these are euphemisms... The only problem with Islamic fundamentalism are the fundamentals of Islam.
Yes it's very rare for anyone to take any fundamentals of any religion so seriously and extreme, but it matters what those fundamentals are. It would be absolutely impossible for Extremist Jainism to be even remotely dangerous. This is not the case for all religions.
I love Sam but bullshit......... Asia and the Orient have not been violence free in their entire history. It is flat out absurd to claim any religion is always peaceful. You push any group of humans into certain situations they can become violent. Religion does not nor ever will create "forever peace". You can only point to parts of our species history where there is more stability or less stability.
Read Victor Stenger's "The New Atheism", he addresses in later chapters a variety of religions including those of Asia and the Orient.