Originally posted by: Luthien
You know why christians "hate" atheists and any other belief so much? Because they threaten christianity's very nature. While in the midst of belief a christian cannot reconcile the self inflicted threat of hell and loss of a magical heaven. Failure to believe in a believers mind means they must give up heaven and suffer hell. The enduring threats they got suckered into believing has traped them. It will continue to trap them until they stop believing in heaven and hell but that means they are going to hell... I think you get the irony of this mind trap that religions love to use because it is so powerful; on top of that they will lose the social bonds that were created within the church and amongst fellow believers so moving on is a very scary thing. It is all no different than any cult. Christianity is a macrocosmic cult just like every other major world religion. The very threat that converted them traps them.
I'm going to take a stab at this. I've been reading your posts, and even listened to some of the links you posted.
Something that's been carefully danced around throughout this thread, yet displayed by hotchic, is tolerance.
It's funny that so many people fluffed up and took a jab at you. I stayed interested in this thread BECAUSE of your comments.
It's obvious you've thought these things out a good bit.
Why do Christians "hate"? Because they are intolerant. It's a human reaction. A feeling. We have feelings. I believe it's a blessing because I've learned to understand what feelings do to me. They lie. Every single time I have a feeling they lie to me.
Case in point...
I get angry and my mind says "Lash out, smack someone, kill it, scream at them" or something else on that order. Intellectually I know that none of those things are right, constructive, good for my long term well-being, or useful. I also know that those reactions simply make things worse.
Just because I'm aware of this, it doesn't mean I'm impervious to myself. Sometimes I have an emotion and act out. I may hurt someone with words or make things worse.
Does that make me less of a Christian or prove that my Faith is hypocritical?
No. It proves I'm not perfect and that I'm human. I redouble my efforts and keep trying.
That, my friend, is why they call it "practicing faith".
Knowing that I am imperfect and that I screw up, and that I am an emotion driven person allows me a few insights.
One is that other people are also emotion driven at times, and sometimes they wil say and do things that they didn't want to do. Or maybe they really did want to do the bad thing they did because they used the lies of the emotions to justify the action. That in turn makes them feel "right".
I do that, too. Once again, I'm human.
All that was to a point.
Humans tend to be emotion driven beings. We aren't, as a whole, very good at seperating emotional issues from intellectual issues. That has been evidenced multiple times in this thread by a number of very intelligent people.
I always considered organized religion to be cultist. It was until I read the definition.
In order to qualify for cult status, a group has to conform to thoughts or ideals or a belief system that are far outside what what the surrounding culture deems "appropritae" or "mainstream".
Being that most of the mainstream religions are very similar, and the thoughts are mainstream, on the whole, most religions do not qualify for the "cult" nomer.
You really have to go out of your way to gain "cult" status. I believe Kool-Aid plays a large part.
But to your point...
You're right. It does happen that way in some instances. My hope is that those who are roped in and brainwashed can find a greater understanding of the tenets that bind us to God rather than the ones that justify Holy Wars.
And now, off to my grand insightful viewpoint...
Why is religion so screwed up? Because religion was created by man.