The path of Spiritual Terrorism is paved with good intentions

[Guest guest]

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully

 

as when they do it from religious conviction."

 

—Pascal, Pensées

[Guruvani]

Spoken like a true atheist.

 

I guess the killing of 60,000,000 Ksatriyas on the battlefield of Kurukshetra falls within the definition given by your atheist mentor.

[Guest guest]

WHY RELIGION SOMETIMES PROMOTES HATRED, VIOLENCE, & GENOCIDE

 

 

 

Quotations:

Statements on the Theory of Reciprocity (Golden Rule): Islam: "Not one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself" Fourth Hadith of an-Nawawi 13.

Christianity: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Matthew 7:12, Holy Bible.

Statements by other religions.

 

Religious violence and hatred: "...Time and again we see leaders and members of religions incite aggression, fanaticism, hate and xenophobia - even inspire and legitimize violent and bloody conflicts." Excerpt from the Preamble of the "Declaration of the Religions for a Global Ethic" 1

"Once started, religious strife has a tendency to go on and on -- to become permanent feuds. Today we see such intractable inter-religious wars in Northern Ireland, between Jews and Muslims and Christians in Palestine, Hindus and Muslims in South Asia and in many other places. Attempts to bring about peace have failed again and again. Always the extremist elements invoking past injustices, imagined or real, will succeed in torpedoing the peace efforts and bringing about another bout of hostility." Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, addressing the World Evangelical Fellowship on 2001-MAY-4.

 

"You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist. I can love the people who hold false opinions but I don't have to be nice to them" Pat Robertson, Fundamentalist Christian tele-minister. 4

Christianity's main rule of human behavior, the Golden Rule, tells its followers to treat other people as they would wish to be treated. This is called the "Ethic of Reciprocity" and is found in various forms in almost all other world religions. Yet, even a casual examination of today's newspaper will show that religion is often a cause of intolerance, hatred, mass crimes against humanity, and genocide. In the past decade, such behavior has occurred in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Cyprus, Nigeria, Sudan, Middle East, Iraq/Iran, Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Philippines, and other countries.

 

 

 

"Religion is a unique force in society. It promotes both good and evil. Historically, it has helped to abolish slavery. It has promoted racial integration, equal rights for women, and equal rights for gays and lesbians. It has motivated individuals to create massive support services for the poor, the sick, the hurting, and the broken. Conversely, it has been used to justify slavery, racial segregation, oppression of women, discrimination against homosexuals, genocide, extermination of minorities, and other horrendous evils."

 

"Religion drives some to dedicate their lives to help the poor and needy. (e.g. Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, Mother Teresa) It drives others to exterminate as many "heretics" as they can...."Religion has the capability to generate unselfish love in some people, and vicious, raw hatred in others."

 

 

[Guest guest]

Cynicism and Negativity: Religious Quotes

Adams, Douglas (1952-)

'Your God person puts an apple tree in the middle of a garden and says, do what you like, guys, oh, but don't eat the apple. Surprise surprise, they eat it and he leaps out from behind a bush shouting "Gotcha". It wouldn't have made any difference if they hadn't eaten it. ... Because if you're dealing with somebody who has the sort of mentality which likes leaving hats on the pavement with bricks under them you know perfectly well they won't give up. They'll get you in the end.' [said Ford Prefect]

 

- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980), Chapter 30

 

Bierce, Ambrose (1842-?1914)

CHRISTIAN, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.

 

FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

 

RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.

 

The Devil's Dictionary (1906)

 

Blake, William (1757-1827)

As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys

 

- The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1791), Plate 9

 

Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of and enslav'd the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects thus began the Priesthood.

 

Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales. And at length they pronounced that the Gods had orderd such things.

 

Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.

 

- The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1791), Plate 11

 

Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)

Feare of power invisible, feigned by the mind, or imagined from tales publiquely allowed, [is called] RELIGION; not allowed, SUPERSTITION.

 

- Leviathan (1651), I.VI

 

And they that make little, or no enquiry into the naturall causes of things, yet from the feare that proceeds from the ignorance it selfe, of what it is that hath the power to do them much good or harm, are enclined to suppose, and feign unto themselves, severall kinds of Powers Invisible; and to stand in awe of their own imaginations; and in time of distresse to invoke them; as also in the time of an expected good success, toogive them thanks; making the creatures of their own fancy, their Gods.

 

- Leviathan (1651), I.XI

 

Maturin, Charles Robert (1782-1824)

'On these points [the broad articles of Christian faith] they never presumed to differ. - They are too plain to be denied, so they [Christian denominations] contrive to make matter of difference out of the various habits they wear; and they cut each other's throats for the love of God, on the important subject, whether their jackets should be red or white - or whether their priests should be arrayed in silk ribbons, or white linen, or black household garments - or whether they should immerse their children in water, or sprinkle them with a few drops of it - or whether they should partake of the memorials of the death of him they all profess to love, standing or on their knees - or -' [said the stranger].

 

- Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), Chapter XVII

 

Pascal, Blaise (1623-1662)

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

 

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844-1900)

Hat er nicht die Welt erschaffen nach seinem Bilde, nämlich so dumm als möglich?

 

[Has he not created the world in his own image, that is, as stupid as possible?]

 

- Also sprach Zarathustra [Thus Spoke Zarathustra], Die Erweckung [The Awakening] (1892) 2

 

Schopenhauer, Arthur (1788-1860)

(According to Augustine's doctrine...) ...God created out of nothing a weak race prone to sin, in order to give them over to endless torment.

 

- The Christian System

 

Voltaire (François Marie Arouet) (1694-1778)

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

 

Wilde, Oscar (1854-1900)

'Curse God and die: what better hope than this?

He hath forgotten thee in all the bliss

Of his gold city, and eternal day'

 

[Guest guest]

Albert Einstein:

 

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.

 

 

 

 

Aldous Huxley:

 

At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols.

 

 

 

Barry Lopez:

 

How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.

 

 

 

 

 

Benjamin Haydon:

 

There surely is in human nature an inherent propensity to extract all the good out of all the evil.

 

 

 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman:

 

It is told that Buddha, going out to look on life, was greatly daunted by death. "They all eat one another!" he cried, and called it evil. This process I examined, changed the verb, said, "They all feed one another," and called it good.

 

 

 

 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman:

 

Death? Why this fuss about death. Use your imagination, try to visualize a world without death! ... Death is the essential condition of life, not an evil.

 

 

 

Cicero:

 

The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.

 

 

 

Edmund Burke:

 

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.

 

 

 

Friedrich Nietzsche:

 

Battle not with monsters

lest ye become a monster

and if you gaze into the abyss

the abyss gazes into you.

 

 

 

Hannah Arendt:

 

The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.

 

 

 

Helen Keller:

 

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings.

 

 

 

Henry Brooks Adam:

 

It is always good men who do the most harm in the world.

 

 

 

Leonardo da Vinci:

 

He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done.

 

 

 

 

Mary Wollstonecraft:

 

Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.

 

 

 

Mohandas K. Gandhi:

 

If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishes from others without thinking evil of them.

 

 

 

Molly Ivins:

 

I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth.

 

 

 

Pearl S. Buck:

 

When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail.

 

 

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

 

The moral sense reappears today with the same morning newness that has been from of old the fountain of beauty and strength. You say there is no religion now. 'Tis like saying in rainy weather, There is no sun, when at that moment we are witnessing one of its superlative effects.

 

 

 

 

Robert Heinlein:

 

But goodness alone is never enough. A hard cold wisdom is required, too, for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom invariably accomplishes evil.

 

 

 

Soren Kierkegaard:

 

Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings.

 

 

 

Unknown:

 

In this world everything changes except good deeds and bad deeds; these follow you as the shadow follows the body.

 

 

 

William Penn:

 

To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals.

 

 

[Guest guest]

even in our movement we see how much people can do the worst things trying to justify them with religious principles

 

if there was no problem.. what's the use to have an offence like that in the list? :

 

7) To commit sinful activities on the strength of the holy name of the Lord.

 

i am Yasoda Nandana Dasa. not logged

[Kulapavana]

many people try to satisfy their material desires using religion either as a tool, or an excuse (power hungry politicians are a good example)... atheists use such materialists as an example of "negative influence of religion" - such views of religion are both biased and primitive