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Chaingang -> Religion of Religious Intolerance and Violence (8/25/2006 1:29:12 PM)
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The Fifth Book of Moses, called
Deuteronomy
13:12 If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,
13:13 Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;
13:14 Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;
13:15 Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.
13:16 And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.
13:17 And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers;
13:18 When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD thy God.
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17:2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
17:3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
17:4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
17:5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
17:6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
17:7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.
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The Point:
When you go looking for monsters, make sure the monster isn't also you.
Too often I have heard it said here that Christianity is different from other religions - that those "other" religions are barbaric and seek the destruction of those unlike themselves. Previously I have pointed to the Book of Joshua (aka the Book of the Conquest) and noted how the ancient Israelites dealt with the people inhabiting the 'promised land." Personally, I don't think the Book of Joshua records historical fact, but instead provides the first myth of genocide. But the point is that the intolerance, hatred, and violence is there - right there, in your most sacred texts, the supposed "word of god!"
I am not picking on Christians, far from it. I think all of the Mosaic faiths are each of them just as stupid and vulgar as the others: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are all three equally full of shit. But don't listen to me. I give you Thomas Paine, well known U.S. patriot and pamphleteer of the American Revolution (he wrote "Common Sense"), from his "The Age of Reason":
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of . . . Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."
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