[ExI] Religions and violence.

[Stefano Vaj]

On 1 August 2010 23:37, Tomasz Rola <rtomek at ceti.pl> wrote:
> On Sun, 1 Aug 2010, John Clark wrote:
>> On Jul 31, 2010, at 7:33 PM, Tomasz Rola wrote:
>> >> Let me ask you one question, do you condemn the whole Nazi group?
>> > No, because condemning groups was - I believe - exactly what Nazi did.
>>
>> Did the entire Nazi group do exactly that?
>
> This was part of their official philosophy. It promoted nobilitation of
> one group (called Aryan race) while enslaving and eradicating  other
> groups seen as inferior (Jews, Gypsies, Black people, and a little later,
> Slavic peoples). This was ideology, i.e. theory. In practice, they didn't
> object much against giving "subhumans" guns and SS uniforms, especially
> closer to their end.

Be it as it may, even though I am far from being a social atomist, we
must admit that groups as such do not perpetrate any wrong nor suffer
any personal injuries. Only individuals really do.

That is, unless in a very metaphoric sense. And, yes, the abuse of
such metaphors lead to very undesirable and paradoxical consequences
at both ends.
Affirmative action, e.g., may have plenty of plausible justifications,
but the reparation of past misdeeds (by somebody else on somebody
else) is definitely not one.

So, I think that we may and must have better arguments to oppose to a
given philosophy or religion than the behaviour of its supporters.

-- 
Stefano Vaj