Discussion for article #232980
Excellent article. This op-ed was able to distill centuries of religious fanaticism and intolerance quite well. There are those however, no matter how much factual information you provide, insist on holding onto their own set of prejudices, even to the point of re-inventing history in order to continue propping up the virtue of their beliefs. Looking in the mirror is never considered a particularly useful or necessary option. Some call that âblind faithâ; I call it willful ignorance.
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Totally agreed. But then there is the poorly-informed middle. We must never stop telling the truth. Some people are still persuadable by argument and evidence. Terrific article.
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I am a bit at a loss. What exactly happened âexactly four hundred years ago, in the winter of 1615â?? The Thirty Years War started only in 1618. 1615 was to the best of my knowledge a relatively peaceful and uneventful year. Keplerâs mother was arrested for witchcraft, but her sonâs connections lead to her acquittal. Cape Hoorn is discovered. Tokugawa Ieyasu unites Japan.
But there is almost nothing specific and exceptional which happens in the - admittedly - blood stained history of religion âexactly four hundred years agoâ. Iâm sure there was something. But nothing so spectacular as to justify this sensationalist assertion. About four hundred years ago? Sure. âExactly four hundred years agoâ? Sorry, no.
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Every century in the history of Christianity is full of examples. But one of the most vivid cases of Christian-motivated bloodshed is what was happening exactly four hundred years ago, in the winter of 1615. Long-standing religious hatredâŚ
Regardless of what is said on Fox, arenât we supposed to evolve and better ourselves? The dark ages are long gone for Pete sake! Iâm not sure what good it does bringing into the debate about possible anti ISIS strategies what Christianity did 400 years ago. The world has a huge problem at hand with these ISIS criminal nuts, who gives a damn about what happened 400 or 2000 years ago ?
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Bu-but those werenât REAL Christians!!!
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Sanctimonious blowhard needs to watch From the Bible to the Battlefield Documentary, but I am sure he is to lazy.
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oops⌠That comment was for Morning Joke
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Excellent article- thanks
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This is very well written and cited and reasonable. . . and it will go right over the heads of conservatives who insist âChristianity good, Islam bad.â
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Thatâs exactly why you canât hang bad acts on religion. People will use prejudice to leverage power and influence in the name of whatever is convenient. And in many places, past and present, thatâs religion if only because religion, law and culture were/are essentially the same thing. There are plenty of examples of secular atrocities from the Nazis to Stalin to Pol Pot, all enabled by prejudice. I think itâs just too reductive to say that religion is nothing more than an organized vehicle for affirming prejudice.
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Obama has been right all along and we all know it. Is FOX going to go back six years and declare that everything Obama has previous said is actually true when they realize it is?
Yeah - I didnât think so. That wouldnât fit their propaganda model: because black, because Kenyan, because muslim, because socialist, because coming to take your guns away, because BENGHAZI!!!
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Well written but you will never get the modern day evangelists to admit the simple truth of your observations. God isnât doing the killing. It is always people who mistakenly think they are doing Godâs will doing the killing.
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Centuries old Christian atrocities should not be conflated with todayâs atrocities by the ISIS.
Itâs not about what happened 400 years ago, itâs about what happened in the last 48 hrs - the President said something, the conservative media flipped out and called him a liar. But what he said was true.
Thatâs what itâs about.
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There are currently many Christian militia across Africa beside the Lordâs Resistance Army doing heinous things to civilians. This is not a thing of the past, but rather a constant thing wherein religious fundamentalism/fanaticism is used to justify horrible deeds.
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What Obama said was the simple truth, and we all know conservatives have problems dealing with reality.
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Yeah, but I bet they were really starting to get pissed off in 1615.
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More evidence to supplement this excellent articleâŚ
I you deny -do not know your history you are destined to repeat it!
THANK YOU
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I think itâs just too reductive to say that religion is nothing more than an organized vehicle for affirming prejudice.
Hmmm, more to the point would be to say that religion in nothing more than an organized vehicle for controlling people.
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