(May 24, 2017 at 1:33 pm)Kernel Sohcahtoa Wrote:(May 24, 2017 at 10:23 am)Shell B Wrote: Apologists? Bloody hell.
People bring up other religions because Abrahamic religions are violent. Only the Jews have managed to stay non-violent (to some degree), and they have been horrible victims of it. People are simply tired of religious folks killing other people because we don't bow down to their gods. That's all. It's perfectly relevant.
That said, I don't adhere to that philosophy. I was merely making a pseudo-joke based on someone else bringing up the Crusades. I think people will always find reasons to hurt each other, with or without religion.
Do you think that the basis for humans finding reasons for hurting one another lies in the way people choose to think and act; or can such behavior be attributed to human nature or a combination of nature and choice?
That's an extraordinarily deep question that I'm not sure I know the answer to. I think it's probably a combination of human nature and choice. We know for certain that there are primal parts of our brain that tend to be more impusive/violent. Therefore, it is in our nature. This is controlled to some degree by other parts of our brain that curb our impulsivity. They don't always work or are overridden by extreme emotions/situations. Then, of course, there are those of us who choose, quite calculatingly, to be violent. It is always a means to end, be it to satisfy a homicidal urge or to gain the economic/social high ground. I'd even go as far as to say humans are exceptionally prone to this behavior compared to the rest of the animal kingdom. Sure, a monkey might beat another monkey to death in a fight (not sure on this, but you know where I'm going), but do they stage global wars? In this way, we are special, just not in the way the religions that believe in the Biblical god think we are.
