One more, I'm afraid. Who started this, anyhow?
Posted by
Douglas Roberts-2 on
Sep 15, 2012; 9:24pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/One-more-I-m-afraid-Who-started-this-anyhow-tp7580551.html
This has been gnawing on me for a day. Finally, as I was out on the mountain bike oxygenating my brain this morning the reason that this one statement below bothered me crystallized.
On Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 7:16 AM, Steve Smith
<[hidden email]> wrote:
The shrill voices against Islam (or even "ahem" Mormons) are not helping,
Tolerance is a highly over-rated "Christian value". That whole 'turn the other cheek thing' simply provides the excuse to allow ludicrous, immoral, or downright evil actions to be allowed to continue unabated. Want examples?
- child sex abuse in the Catholic church
- atrocities committed in the name of Islam
- Hitler's Brown Shirts, The Hitler Youth Program
- cult religions -- I know: that doesn't narrow the field at all. Ok, let's be generous and define Jim Jones' cult, Scientology, and the Morman thing as "cult religions". Why? because they all evolved during modern recorded history. The events that led to their emergence are all clearly recorded for all who care to read about it.
- the other religions
- political corruption
Why did each of these things evolve and prosper, if only for a period? Because sufficient numbers of people tolerated them.
Respecting a person's right to believe in a cause that clearly resonates is one thing. Tolerating irrational, abusive, and amoral actions performed in the name of those causes itself comprises an amoral act.
Just because people have the right to believe in whatever value set appeals to them does not mean that they are not sometimes due criticism. To hide behind the veil of "tolerance" in the face of clearly amoral (or perhaps just plain stupid) behavior is to allow these anti-social behaviors to spread like the cancer they are.
But, (be aware, complete and total reversal is coming): perhaps the human race deserves no better than to be forced to stand out in the middle of this shit storm we have created.
Finally, as a strangely related side-note: look at this global fundamentalist Islamic uprising that was caused because some asshole made a movie which depicted Mohammad as a philanderer. And now compare this to the reaction when "The Life of Brian" was released in 1979. You cannot possibly say that TLOB was any less respectful to the cult figure named Jesus than this latest opus was to the cult figure named Mohammad. Yet here we are with the political correctness police grilling Nakoula Basseley Nakoula over "The Innocence of Muslims."
Ludicrous.
--Doug
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org