[ExI] Brief correction re Western Democracies

[Darren Greer]

2011/2/22 Josh <ethersong at gmail.com>

> 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.
>

Another welcome. I'm a relative newcomer too. I joined a year ago.

>
>  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.


Strangely enough, my first posts to this group were exactly along these
lines, and with the same sentiments -- that some religion people are not
foaming at the mouth and therefore are relatively harmless, and so we should
be careful not to paint all with the same brush.

I still believe that to a degree, but I also now believe that we have not
just a right but a responsibility to question any system that spreads
ignorance, intolerance, exclusion and fear. And most, if not all, religions
are guilty of some of what is listed. Even the Bahai's, arguably the most
inclusive and tolerant religion on the planet, has a stricture against
homosexuals and drug addicts.

We question and criticize political systems all the time, even those we
agree with, but when it comes to religion there has been this 'hands off"
policy that has gone on far too long and has created a  political and
 social vacuum in which hatred and intolerance has been allowed to operate
with impuntiy. It is the source of much conflict on the planet.
Even political demagogues hide behind it, because they know it is safe.
Maybe it's time we spoke up and made it not so.

darren


-- 
*There is no history, only biography.*
*
*
*-Ralph Waldo Emerson
*
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