bobover3 (imported) wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:38 am
Morganster, I don't know the bible well enough to say if you're right, but you make a persuasive case.
However, I've got to point out that all religions are essentially biased, because they each claim to possess a divine revelation which is uniquely true and which is greater than any other truth. No one who dissents from this "spiritual" arrogance can sincerely claim to be among the devout of a religion.
Respect for other faiths is part of contemporary humanism, and runs counter to the creed of all religions. That many religious professionals now profess tolerance only shows that humanism outranks religion among their values.
The faithful may, at best, pity others for their alienation from god(s) and for their coming damnation. It would be nice if Christians, Jews, and Muslims accepted those of their faith who are gay. It would be nicer still if they accepted the majority of the human race who are not of their faith. But that would mean giving up the "spiritual" certainty which is among the chief consolations of religion.
The problem with tossing religion overboard totally is that we have been living with it, and arguably unable to live without it, for most of our existence as a species. We have science now to answer most...well, many....of the mysteries of our world, but that's only in the last four or five hundred years. The human race is a million years old, give or take a few hundred thousand, and we'd have gone crazy if we hadn't had religion for most of that time.
You might say, 'well, we don't need it anymore, so let's get rid of it.' But the problem with that, as I see it, is that we evolved into the species we are now with it, so it's a part of our basic mentality, whether we like it or not.
That's why I think it is important to 'correct the religious record' where it is clearly wrong. Most people are going to continue to be religious, like it or not, so the thing to do is to demystify the totally egregious misconceptions embedded in religion - like the sinfulness of homosexuality - so we can continue to live with each other, religious or otherwise.
