Life's greatest pleasure?

AlanBarr

Actually, there is some validity to the practice of characterizing a religion according to its most "extreme" examples. To be extreme means to be consistent. So the worst, most extreme Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews etc. are also those who take their religion most seriously and practice it with the greatest degree of consistancy.

All forms of unreason (both mysticism and subjectivism and skepticism) lead ultimately to violence. Religion as well as "secular" modern collectivism. (Actually, the modern, allegedly secular collectivism is just a new form of religion in which The Collective has been substituted for God.)

I completely disagree, That attitude would lead to "Muslims are terrorists" and then you're only one step away from "Let's round up all the Muslims". Think of what's happening in China.

I'm not advocating religion, but it's a fact of life and we all have to try and get on with each other as best we can.

"worst" and "most extreme" don't necessarily belong together. There are "extreme" practitioners of all these religions who are the most peaceable, selfless people imaginable - hermits, sufis etc - and who take their religion just as seriously as the self-appointed egomaniac fear-mongers who dictate, condemn and kill in the name of their Gods and whose "consistency" is as random and self-serving as the moment suits them.

Having said all that, I should add that arguing about religion is a long way down my particular list of life's greatest pleasures.

This splendidly intentioned thread is heading towards dangerous territory. So, in a crude and clumsy attempt it back to the subject matter... my personal view is it is making someone else happy. It doesn't have to be anything grand, sometimes the simplest kindnesses make the world of difference to a person desperately in need of a gesture of support, and perhaps bring them some pleasure.

I try to make people's day by writing long (some would say tedious) stories under the guise of my alter ego, Norland Hughes. The pleasure comes when they finally stop reading...

Would you call 'Sister Sophia the Spanking Nun' a religious extremist or rather a heavenly delight?

I'm sorry, Alan, but it was you who said "No Christian would......". How is that any different than the generalization I made? My response was meant to convey that rather than 'no Christian', my experience is that there are 'plenty'. I never said 'all'. I said, "in my experience", and while I haven't met every Christian, I do know plenty, and only two out of all of them who actually live their faith.

As for beliefs held up for ridicule? The only implied ridicule is in the contradictory statements in the two testaments......and I didn't write either of them. I am just pointing out that much like a statistician will use whatever numbers support their position, so too can a Christian point to some verse somewhere to justify just about anything....and then reverse position and quote some verse to support that. That's not ridicule, just an observation.

You're quite right. I should have said something like "Only an extremely tiny minority" because obviously it would be possible to find a fanatical fundamentalist who thought genocide was fine because the bible authorised it. My point was that it is not true of the overwhelming majority, and it's insulting to imply they would be that stupid! I'm glad you know some Christians who are decent people - don't we all.

Just a point of clarification, the Bible is not the only ancient text that justifies genocide, most do, and sadly mass killings still go on today.

Four of the worst genocides in modern times have been in Communist China, Nazi controlled Europe and Communist Cambodia and the Stalinist USSR, none have which were committed in the name of religion.

Brosse, you keep insisting that Nazism, Soviet Communism, etc, aren't 'religions'. This is a misconception. A religion can be any system of belief where mindless adherence to the creed overides all other considerations, however rational. It doesn't have to involve a god.

PhilK

In principle I don't disagree with you Phil, however my socialist and atheist friends flatly refuse to accept that their belief systems are as much a religion as Catholicism, Judaism or Hinduism. Even though they are more dogmatic and prosyletising of their socialism and atheism than most religious folk are of their beliefs.