RE: Woman beats up disabled man and then robs him for not believing in God
January 8, 2016 at 8:23 pm
(January 8, 2016 at 6:10 pm)drfuzzy Wrote: Hmm. Religion is divisive . . . true. It fosters an "us vs. them" mentality.
But there is also the problem of having one religion being the majority, as xtianity is here in the States. The majority will oppress the minority. If you have two conflicting views of somewhat equal numbers, they'll try to kill each other off for decades over who has the right imaginary friend. (Or in the case of Ireland, Protestants vs. Catholics . . . who worships their imaginary friend the right way!)
It's the loss of power and control here in the US of A that is freaking out the fundies. I'm sure these criminals think they are justified by god and will be exonerated in the courts for protecting god and country from the evil atheists. It's not going to stop any time soon.
Not suggesting you can rid the world of it completely. No it is not going to stop anytime soon. But the west has done a far better job of maintaining a better level of civility. I think we can do better to manage our differences a more natural explanation of life through educating more people. There will always be delusional people but you cant even let a majority oppress a minority just because they are a majority.
What you are seeing by our right wing is fear of change. They had been so used being assumed at being in the drivers seat and now they don't know how to handle changing times. The East is far worse and they not only kill blasphemers and apostates but each other as well.
One thing minorities forget and majorities forget, is those things are geographical not global. You'd be a majority in one location, but move somewhere else and in that context you'd be the minority. So in that context one can have empathy for other minorities but not excuse the same label in a different location if they are the abusive majority.
So for example. I can have Empathy for Ann Frank, but not condone all the tactics of Israel today. I can have empathy for Malala, and non violent Muslims in the west, and still despise ISIS. I can have empathy for Kurdish Christians in Iraq but Despise Kim Davis.
So when people read or hear me blaspheme religion, it isn't because I hate all religious individuals worldwide. But I do hate what religion does to human thought that leads humans to harm each other.
