It Shouldn't Be Taboo To Criticize Religious Beliefs

Dr. Sam Harris nails it on the head. He tells it like it is. People are dying for an imaginary God and people are being punished for imaginary crimes like blasphemy. Listen, Pause, and Reflect!

 

yep, Gods don't kill people, believers in Gods kill people

 

There are some issues I have with Harris. But he's obviously right here.

 

This is just more ignorance.

People kill for plenty of reasons that have nothing at all to do with religious belief.

We have problems like that right here in the USA.



There is NOTHING about what Jesus taught that suggests anyone has a right to kill.

He did NOT teach us that we had the right to slaughter Vietnamese, Iraqis, native peoples, those with darker skin, aliens (whom Jesus helped), or anyone else.

 

People criticize Christianity all the time, so it's not exactly taboo.

Though what is taboo and can be dangerous to your health is criticizing Islam

 

Millions upon millions of people believe in God. How many are killing other people because of their God?

 

doesn't change the fact that what I said is true

yep, Gods don't kill people, believers in Gods kill people

yes, not all that believe in a God kill people

 

Far more people, kill other people for money. Is money a God too?

 

how many Gods kill people - zero, people that believe in Gods kill people

many kill for the Money God too... in the Money God they trust

 

You forgot to answer my question.... Is money a God too?

 

yep, many kill for the Money God too... in the Money God they trust

 

True of what? That there are nuts in every organization. Postal workers would quit their jobs if the number of crazed and disgruntled former carriers started killing every day. Your statement is one that requires a two foot broad brush to make any sense.

 

America doesn't tend to call it Christianity when we decide to slaughter those of other faiths. But, nobody can deny that Christianity isn't involved in the war decisions we make.

 

Do you have examples where Christianity was used to start wars? I'm not aware of any.

 

"Rumsfeld’s Iraq “crusade” revealed"

http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/05/18/rumsfelds-iraq-crusade-revealed/

"I wonder what’s worse: a defense secretary who puts Old Testament quotes on progress updates on an invasion of a Muslim country or a defense secretary who thinks this will add to his president’s knowledge and expertise. The lethal combination of a Christianist president and a cynical coterie helped make the Iraq debacle happen."

crusades and jihads... where does it end

Another non-pay link

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...t-Bushs-Iraq-briefings-came-quotes-Bible.html

 

The god of that war was black..... Crude oil.

 

that too

"The Iraq war will cost little, and Iraq oil will pay for it. Then....."

http://watchingthewatchers.org/news/624/iraq-war-cost-little-and-iraq-oil

"If you can remember that far back, before the invasion of Iraq, Dick Cheney and friends were arrogantly sure that (a) the cost of the war would be minimal, and (b) Iraq's oil revenue would fund reconstruction efforts; it would virtually be a no-cost war, one that paid for itself."

 

Did Rumsfeld go to the Christian community and use scriptures to get support from them?

 

did the Christian community condemn the war, did they support it?

but more importantly, did the Christians starting the war support it for religious reasons

 

I don't know. Show me the money!

 

I strongly suspect our Vietnamese war would have been entirely different if they had a significant Christian population. We felt free to consider their form of government to be adequate justification for our slaughter of Vietnamese. We completely ignored the fact that Vietnam was highly anti-China due to a long history of conflict. Our Christianity allowed us to see these people's lives as worthless and to reject any recognition of the shared interest in opposing China.

The same or worse is probably true for Iraq. Their religion was a major factor in our attitude in multiple important ways. We knew that our justification for slaughtering Iraq was not true. So did other members of the UNSC, who opposed our desire to conquer Iraq even though the agreed upon inspection regime had not been completed and no significant threat had been discovered. Nobody can seriously believe that once the decision was in the hands of Bush and the American people that Christianity wasn't a major part of the decision.

Today, we support Israel's humanitarian atrocities against Palestinians. Our clear hate for Palestine is not based in ANY rational argument. Our Christian population has been eager to help with these atrocities - blocking efforts to negotiate borders, arming Israel with weapons that are used against Palestinians, supporting increased focus on Jerusalem being Israeli (which has been a major issue in all previous negotiations), cutting off past aid to Palestinians who are dispossessed of their homes, farmland, and water, supporting the notion that Palestinians in Palestine may be ruled by military government of Israel.

These are all counter to EVERY principle our founding documents establish. Nothing but religion could possibly so thoroughly counter the central precepts of our beliefs as a nation.

 

No, there is NO justification for that.

There is no way that we could steal Iraqi oil. Nor was there any chance that Iraqi oil was going to be denied to the world market. In fact, our war opened the major abruption of Iraqi oil on the world market. We weren't going to get that oil. And, we did nothing to ensure the world oil market wasn't disrupted.

It was well known that Iraqi oil wasn't sufficient for rebuilding post war Iraq.

The Bush administration threw out numerous excuses for war, presumably in the hopes that one would stick, or maybe that a collection of those believing the many stories would add up to the war they wanted so badly.

 

I'm sorry. I'm just not seeing what I asked for in all of that. Initially I thought you would point to the Crusades for evidence, but that would have nothing to do with American religious aggression predicated on beliefs.

 

Yes, I did do that. One can certainly look at history and find wars based purely or nearly purely on the many religions of the world.

I switched up on that, as these ancient acts came from times when views of good government were very different - separation of religion from government, law such as that of the UN that declares expansionism to be illegal, etc. The crusades were a very different time - as were the many inquisitions. Today, the Pope doesn't call for the slaughter of protestants or Muslims. Catholicism has changed, and berating them for ancient bad acts seems pointless.

The bigger deal is what we believe today and how we act on that - such questions as whether we believe in a separation between Christianity and the state, or do we believe that purely Christian views may be forced by law - or war.

 

I don't think I ever, in my lifetime, heard Christians calling for wars against other people of religion. Even going to war against terrorist separates them out from mainstream Islam.