Intolerance in the Christian Bible

[trotsky]

This may come as a shock to some - but there is intolerance in that book!

The Skeptics Annotated Bible put together a pretty comprehensive list here.

Some people apparently think that intolerance is just a human thing, and religion can never foster, encourage, or support it.

Those people are dead wrong and are attempting to whitewash their religion and history itself.

Just one tiny example - 2 Corintians 6:14 - "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?"

[True Dough]

1. You can fully expect

those same people to be intolerant of this thread too!

[trotsky]

14. So far he's just trying to ignore it.

Kinda inconvenient for his agenda.

[highmindedhavi]

2. Something similar thing with the Koran

"Fight those who believe not in God and the Last Day and do not forbid what God and His Messenger have forbidden -- such men as practise not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book -- until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled."

Qur'an 9:29

[trotsky]

5. Yep, not uncommon at all in most (all?) holy texts.

After all, one of the reasons they were written was to assure one group of believers they were better than everyone else.

[unc70]

3. Much of the New Testament intolerance is from Paul

Not much in the "red letter" sections.

The Old Testament is a nasty, dark place.

[trotsky]

4. Oh there's a pretty decent amount in those "red letter" parts too.

Here's just a few from the book of Matthew:

Those who bear bad fruit will be cut down and burned "with unquenchable fire." 3:10, 12

Jesus says that most people will go to hell. 7:13-14

Those who fail to bear "good fruit" will be "hewn down, and cast into the fire." 7:19

"The children of the kingdom [the Jews] shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 8:12

Jesus tells his disciples to keep away from the Gentiles and Samaritans, and go only to the Israelites. 10:5-6

Cities that neither "receive" the disciples nor "hear" their words will be destroyed by God. It will be worse for them than for Sodom and Gomorrah. And you know what God supposedly did to those poor folks (see Gen 19:24). 10:14-15

Families will be torn apart because of Jesus (this is one of the few "prophecies" in the Bible that has actually come true). "Brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death." 10:21

"Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." 10:33

Jesus says that he has come to destroy families by making family members hate each other. He has "come not to send peace, but a sword." 10:34-36

Jesus condemns entire cities to dreadful deaths and to the eternal torment of hell because they didn't care for his preaching. 11:20-24

"He that is not with me is against me." 12:30

"Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him." 12:31-32

Jesus often called people names. One of his favorites was to call his adversaries a "generation of vipers." 12:34

Jesus will send his angels to gather up "all that offend" and they "shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." 13:41-42, 50

[procon]

13. Sounds very Republican-ish

Making sure the fans stay on message by threatening them with retribution and mayhem if they consort with anyone who might present new ideas that question the dogma.

[Cartoonist]

6. That's quite a list

Here's one that shows just how sick God is:

After God has sufficiently hardened the Pharaoh's heart, he kills all the firstborn Egyptian children. When he was finished "there was not a house where there was not one dead." Finally, he runs out of little babies to kill, so he slaughters the firstborn cattle, too. 12:29

On another note, compare the treatment of the Chinese government to certain members of their population, to the treatment of the Amalekites.

[Major Nikon]

7. The idea that intolerance is a human condition is highly debatable

One thing that's not is religion lends itself extremely valuable as a tool for stoking intolerance. Even if you ignore the numerous citations for intolerance in all sorts of religious tomes, it's pretty hard to ignore that hate is preached from the pulpit pretty much universally. I suppose some sleep better at night convincing themselves otherwise, but it seems as if that level of delusion would require a considerable amount of time and effort.

[MineralMan]

8. Religion often enables and promotes intolerance.

At other times, it enables and promotes peaceful coexistence. It all depends on who is interpreting whatever scriptures or holy writings that are the particular religion's foundation.

Just took at the different ways different denominations of Christianity look at, say, LGBTQ people. Depending on which church you're in, you can hear a message of acceptance or a diatribe of hatred and blame.

Religion, all too often, normalizes hatred and malice toward the "others." Defenders of particular religions generally point to peaceable denominations as examples, neglecting to mention all of the examples of the opposite kind. Defenders of religion in general tend to seek out messages of acceptance and tolerance, while ignoring messages of hatred and distrust.

Why is religion particularly to blame for promoting intolerance? Because when it does so, it justifies that intolerance by quoting scripture which is typically considered to be a deity's instructions to humans. That additional weight of authority makes people feel OK about hating the "others." "God said it was OK to hate them."

That is not to say that other human associations, societies, and cultures do not also promote intolerance. Projection is a common feature of many such groups.

[trotsky]

10. Yes, this is it exactly:

Why is religion particularly to blame for promoting intolerance? Because when it does so, it justifies that intolerance by quoting scripture which is typically considered to be a deity's instructions to humans. That additional weight of authority makes people feel OK about hating the "others." "God said it was OK to hate them."

It not only codifies the hate, but completely removes it from rational analysis. Now it's "god's will" and not something to be questioned.

[MineralMan]

12. That is the problem in general with religion.

Reason and logic are not involved with scriptures that originated with a supposed supernatural deity.

[trotsky]

9. It's critically important for some to maintain their preferred narrative...

that religion is good and pure and perfect, and only defective evil men "misuse" it. That view also contains the bigoted notion that all bad people are bad because they're not following religion properly. True believers are never bad, IOW. It's the heathens and non-believers who are bad.

Plenty of otherwise decent individuals have engaged in atrocious behavior because their holy book ordered it. Loving parents who reject their gay children, for instance. Religion *CAN* be responsible for intolerance. Pretending otherwise is foolish and wrong.

[Major Nikon]

11. Here's the best part...

The one in question would never concede religion *CAN* be responsible for intolerance, but even if it could (and it can't obviously ), then the fallback position is atheism is no different because of those evil Chinese atheists and Stalin argle bargle. Naturally this relies on the targeted audience being too stupid to realize atheism has exactly zero doctrine and/or dogma that even suggests intolerance, much less commands it.