Heresy Hypothesis
July 28, 2010 at 9:57 am
(This post was last modified: July 28, 2010 at 9:58 am by DeistPaladin.)
I have a hypothesis regarding what religion typically regards as heretical that I would like to throw out there for everyone's consideration:
As a religion becomes more dominant in society, as measured by the percentage of the population that identifies as adherents of the faith, it becomes proportionally less tolerant of and more sensitive to heterodoxy and therefore more prone to labeling it as heretical.
Observation: In Indonesia, where Islam is the majority religion, Christians that I've met are oblivious to denominational differences, even ones as stark as Protestant and Catholic. Being in the minority, Christians there are more likely to see each other as comrades even though their theological differences would be incompatible here in the USA. In the USA, where Christianity is 75% of the population, Catholics are regarded by Protestants as "not true Christians".
If this hypothesis is correct, as sure as 1/X will never equal zero, there can never be any peace with religion. As a society converts, the religion becomes increasing sensitive to heresy, so there will always be "heretics" over increasingly hair-splitting details of the theology.
As a religion becomes more dominant in society, as measured by the percentage of the population that identifies as adherents of the faith, it becomes proportionally less tolerant of and more sensitive to heterodoxy and therefore more prone to labeling it as heretical.
Observation: In Indonesia, where Islam is the majority religion, Christians that I've met are oblivious to denominational differences, even ones as stark as Protestant and Catholic. Being in the minority, Christians there are more likely to see each other as comrades even though their theological differences would be incompatible here in the USA. In the USA, where Christianity is 75% of the population, Catholics are regarded by Protestants as "not true Christians".
If this hypothesis is correct, as sure as 1/X will never equal zero, there can never be any peace with religion. As a society converts, the religion becomes increasing sensitive to heresy, so there will always be "heretics" over increasingly hair-splitting details of the theology.
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
