|
Nov 2023
12:35pm, 2 Nov 2023
15,769 posts
|
jda
Yesterday’s extremist is today’s centrist.
|
|
Nov 2023
1:04pm, 2 Nov 2023
22,498 posts
|
larkim
Religious extremes are a cause of many problems in the world. Mind you, one could argue that about any form of extremism, almost by definition. Animal rights, socialist/capitalist - any form of extremism tends to lead to intolerance, conflict and eventually violence. Be more tolerant, understanding and forgiving. Which ironically is at the heart of almost every religion. What a piece of work is a man...
I've just started listening to David Mitchell's "Unruly", a history of the English nation / monarchy. Good so far. But he made that exact same point; humans coalesce around many different things, and then humans have a grotesque tendency to enjoy fighting / disputing / being at war with other groups of humans because they have a different view on that particular "thing". Whether that thing is politics, ideology, religion, etc is actually largely irrelevant; it isn't the ideology or religion which causes the dispute or is to blame for it, its just the fact that large groups of people think / adhere to it and other large groups of people don't. If religion didn't exist, there'd be plenty of other things to groups up in opposition to one another. Or at least, that's how I interpreted his point.
I think there's a lot to be said for that perspective, tbh.
|
|
Nov 2023
1:09pm, 2 Nov 2023
14,911 posts
|
Dave W
Yeah. Humans are pretty flawed as a species. The world would be a better place without us.
|
|
Nov 2023
1:14pm, 2 Nov 2023
4,133 posts
|
Cheg
Yeah I'll take offence anyway, thanks for the feedback on why I shouldn't be offended though.
Who moderates the moderator? Think that's you fetch.
|
|
Nov 2023
1:25pm, 2 Nov 2023
15,770 posts
|
jda
I'm not convinced that the jam-first vs cream-first debate would really be sufficient to motivate war and genocide, but perhaps I'm being naive.
(For the record: whichever way round works best for the thicknesses involved.)
|
|
Nov 2023
1:45pm, 2 Nov 2023
4,255 posts
|
Bob!
I always cut the scone in two.
One half it's Jam first, the other half it's cream first.
|
|
Nov 2023
1:50pm, 2 Nov 2023
48,304 posts
|
HappyG(rrr)
Bob!  jda 😈 etc See, we can have Scone Fundamentalism. But how would it be pronounced?! *ducks*  G
|
|
Nov 2023
2:07pm, 2 Nov 2023
15,772 posts
|
jda
With a scone between your teeth, you talk only in vowels.
|
|
Nov 2023
2:27pm, 2 Nov 2023
20,823 posts
|
Chrisull
I dunno at a previous workplace I had a hitherto pleasant colleague ranting over Zoom for half an hour on why anyone who didn't put cream first then jam on his scone was some kind of imbecile. I was ready to lamp him after that, but fortunately you can't lamp someone remotely.
|
|
Nov 2023
2:38pm, 2 Nov 2023
22,500 posts
|
larkim
Yeah I'll take offence anyway, thanks for the feedback on why I shouldn't be offended though. Who moderates the moderator? Think that's you fetch.
I've trod similar ground in the past as a lapsed catholic Cheg. Even though my faith in any god has disappeared, I think it is hard for people who have never had a genuine faith to accept that the religious beliefs of others, up to an ill-defined point where it turns into fanaticism and utterly lacking logic, are anything other than genuine and valid. And maybe I'm wrong about that, but I do think I'm in a more balanced position on this because of my previous background.
So I would use the term bible basher, but I would reserve it for an extreme end of the evangelical spectrum (c.f. the US approach in many areas), rather than use it as a term to dismiss the honest, genuine religious / religious aligned beliefs which informed some parts of British foreign policy in the early part of the 20th century.
|
