From: Olga Bourlin (fauxever@sprynet.com)
Date: Sun Jan 26 2003 - 21:48:36 MST
From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Olga stressed:
<<All I said was there's a link between religiosity and intolerance - the more fundamentally religious a group is, the more intolerant it tends to be (and that's certainly true in militant Islam's case). Historically (as well as generally) speaking, the Bible Belt in America has the reputation for being more intolerant than the rest of the United States - again, there's the religious/bigoted connection. >>
< Eh? There are many non-religious, anti-religious people who have done many nasty things too. >
While there may be jerks among the non-religious or anti-religious (BTW, most *believers* are the ones who are "anti-religious" - or, specifically, more "anti-OTHER-religions" - are you including them among the "nasties" here?), the jails in the USA are *disproportionally* filled with believers, not nontheists. While Lee Corbin may point out that's "merely statistical," make of that what you will.
< Perhaps, religion gives people who would naturally be intolerant, a motivation, a leg up? >
What would that motivation be? What exactly *is* the motivation of religions (in general)? You aren't suggesting that a theistic viewpoint (based on myths and superstitions for which there is no evidence, i.e., based on lies) is any better than a nontheistic viewpoint (e.g., secular humanism, which at least deals with the "real" world), are you? The religious viewpoint doesn't even get out of the starting gate when the integrity of facts comes into play.
It seems more like, perhaps, that freethought would give people who would naturally be intolerant an inspiration to get over their religiously endowed genes (which aid and abet intolerance) and superstitious inclinations (which aid and abet woo-woo thinking) and become more intellectually mature and "civilized." Anyway, who's to say where intolerance begins as most people (even those who eventually throw off the shackles of religious-magical-thinking) are infected at a very early age with the "us v. them" view upon most religions rely? Tolerance is a relatively new idea in the history of our world:
http://www.slonet.org/~ipauslo/fthall-of-slo/fd-010.html
< Or how do you explain Russian Orthodox pogrom-heads, converting in a decade to anti-religious Gulag-heads? >
This is how I would explain it: You can lead mushiks to atheism but you can't make them think.
Spudboy, you never commented about the historical connection in the Bible Belt to bigotry. What do you make of it?
More interesting (and scary) stuff:
http://www.skeptictank.org/wacoarm1.htm
http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/shb/haught_15_1.htm
Olga
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