Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Angry
I'm not attempting to "make mischief" as you put it.
I was merely using this as an analogy as to how violence on the part of fundamentalists can be arrived at, and indeed encouraged, by religious teachings.
Let's just assume I don't know the bible at all and I'm asking you, notwithstanding the fact that the instruction itself is clear - irrespective of the frequency of the act or the party on whose behalf any such actions are instructed to be carried out on - what part of Jesus's "non-violent" preachings that particular instruction fits.
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Jesus instructed his disciples at all times to act in a non-violent manner. He used sayings such as 'turn the other cheek' to show that far from taking revenge on someone who wrongs you, you should be quite prepared to allow them to wrong you again.
Jesus assures his disciples that anybody who treats them in such a way, and who goes to their death without having sought forgiveness from God for his deeds, will indeed face vengeance - but from God, not from any person.
A common device used by Jesus when teaching was the parable - a simple story in which familiar situations and character types are used in order to illustrate a greater point. The verse you quoted was from a parable, in fact it was from the end of a parable, where Jesus is teaching about the final punishment suffered by those who have never asked God's forgiveness. The character vowing to put someone to death represents God sitting on his throne of judgement. The actions of the character are not offered as a pattern for disciples to follow in their earthly life. For it to be taken as an instruction of how disciples are to behave, it would have to be taken out of its context to such an outrageous extent that I doubt even the most fervently deluded cult would try it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramrod
Ah yes, the argument that you are attempting now is the same one smokers use when they say "what about the fumes from cars then?".
The point is that we are discussing religious extremism arising from religious fundamentalism in this thread......
...and don't even get me started on communism and extremism....  |
Yes, we are discussing religious extremism, but the fact that that's what we're discussing doesn't give you the right to assert that extremism can only come from religious fundamentalism. Unless what you actually meant was, religious extremism can only come from religious fundamentalism, and I'd have said that was a truism - subject, of course, to the understanding I believe we've reached on the meaning and application of the word 'fundamentalism'.