(February 9, 2009 at 4:27 am)GSARider Wrote: I think it's quite different here in Europe, there's more tolerance / acceptance of varying views. It's not such a big issue. From all I've read, you seem to have more fundamentalist 'believers' than we do.
That's because Europe cleverly discovered a couple of new continents and shipped all of its undesirables to foreign shores. That's how Europe purged itself of its "religious nutters." Just crank up the heat and offer them the opportunity to thumb their nose at others and "rule in hell" by hopping on a ship. And that's why America is so "red ant." It was founded by a bunch of crazy fuckers. It's genetic. It's in the blood.
But I don't necessarily agree that religion gets people to hate. It's a sort of chicken and egg phenomenon. I think that, in order to survive and prosper, religion had to appeal to people's predilections. So they validated people's irrational hatred of others, irrational belief that there is something after death, and irrational belief in the supernatural. I think religion is more of a symptom than a disease. The disease is irrational thought process and fear.
