[ExI] Brief correction re Western Democracies

[Josh]

Hey, new to the list and was planning on just reading through for a couple
of days but I have to jump in right quick. I think I might have missed a
part of the convo though so if I say something amiss, I apologize.

As a former Mormon whose family is still Mormon, I couldn't not butt in. My
sister went on a mission to Venezuela and my brother is currently on one in
Chile.  We (agnostics, atheists, or those with other spiritual interests)
have to be careful about the way we characterize religious sects. This is
not helping your authority at all. The Mormons do not prohibit apostasy and
the especially don't kill them for leaving the church. If so I would be dead
right now. In fact, I'm not really aware of any full religions with
doctrinally support such a practice although some radical *sects* of some
religions might.

Now granted there are many beliefs that do lead to violence, which I believe
is what this thread is about. But we have to be careful and not eschew all
religions because of the radical beliefs of a few. I know the extropians are
quite down on religion but I think this has to be tread carefully.  Making
assumptions and mistakes like this only alienate people who may have good
reasons for their beliefs.

That's all I'll say for now.

etherfire

On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:35 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

> ...
>
> >>  http://tinyurl.com/65q8csf
>
> ...
>
> >Yet they were helpless to do anything.  And he was walking.  Unarmed.
>
> >What happens when each of these guys gets out of jail 20 minutes from now
> (or 10 with good behavior) and each of them have a big family of believers?
> To avoid a tragic repeat, they must stop teaching other religions
> immediately...
>
> The Mormon religion specifically forbids apostasy.  Their literature
> specifies "Whoever changes his religion, kill him."  It might have been one
> of the other major religions, I get confused, Presbyterian or Amish
> perhaps.
> But the point is, we must recognize that teaching their children other
> religions is irresponsible and dangerous when they are not free to convert.
> It is dangerous for the students and the professors, and of course the
> families who are morally obligated to murder the confused and erring
> convert.  People do sometimes get hurt in that process.
>
> The Mormons in England are there as missionaries.  They are not there to
> have their children converted to the ways of the heathen.  They are there
> to
> convert you.
>
> spike
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
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>
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