[ExI] riots again

[Keith Henson]

On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 11:22 AM,  Charlie Stross
<charlie.stross at gmail.com> wrote:

snip

> I don't feel the need to defend islam. Or christianity, or judaism. All those faiths harbour a bucketload of intolerant chuckleheads who want to force their beliefs on everyone else. However, to damn *all* muslims, christians, or jews as intolerant chuckleheads is to make a mistake of similar magnitude. The cure for intolerance is not more intolerance.

I think it is worth considering where all religions came from in the
first place.  They are, near as I can see every one of them,
xenophobic memes.   And the reason they thrive in human minds is due
to the same mechanisms that have caused wars for the last few million
years.

Mirco Romanato <painlord2k at libero.it>

> In fact, the majority of Muslims, Jews, Communists and other assorted
> creeds is not really intolerant of harmless behavior. The problem arise
> when they are tolerant of harmful behaviors of some of their fellows.
>
> The problem with Muslims is not they are all blood-thirsty savages; only
> a few are. The problem is the great majority think the behavior of the
> blood-thirsty savages is mandated, normal, acceptable and doesn't want
> or is able to purge their ranks from the "small minority" and often side
> with them against the outsiders.
>
> This problem is not present with other large religions, as the "small
> minority" inside them is often promptly rejected, ostracized, isolated,
> disowned and fought as they show off their true colors.

That's more or less true today, but any religion can be used as an
excuse to kill unbelievers and will be if the population is under
"bleak future" stress.  If you need examples, I can certainly proved
plenty of them.  But if you want to figure this out yourself, tell me
why the IRA is much less of a problem today.

Keith