News:

Welcome to our site!

Main Menu

Christianity and racism

Started by Mike Cl, July 26, 2020, 08:29:43 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Baruch

#15
Quote from: drunkenshoe on July 28, 2020, 04:28:18 AM
All of them are based on racism. Isn't that the whole logic? Buddhist societies have a cast system in itself, Muslims have a slavery system based on 'spoils' of war... There are no boundries.

Atheists have their gulags.

@aitm ... 15th, 16th, 17th centuries for New World exploration.  Two million Europeans were kidnapped by the Barbary Pirates over a 300 year period.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: SGOS on July 28, 2020, 07:03:14 AM
My Baptist grandmother was illogical, delusional, and uneducated, and she did a lot of psychological damage to me, but I would describe her as loving.  Later in life, I met one of the other kind of Baptists, a woman not unlike my grandmother, but who delighted in the inevitable misery of sinners, and she had an impact that set the stage for my atheism.  There was no logic in this part of my transition.  I was still young and depended on emotional reactions as a guide.  She didn't turn me into an atheist exactly.  I still considered myself a Christian, but I realized how despicable Christianity could be, and it helped me disassociate myself from the cult. I may have actually pioneered part of the new age religious movement.  I had to find something better than Christianity and still believe in some kind of god, I guess to avoid the eternal flames. 

This vicious woman also appointed herself as the final authority on sinner identification.  In all my memories of her, what stands out is her ability to produce a facial expression of joy and hatred at the same time.  I'd never been aware of that in anyone else, well at least not that obviously blatant.  That expression would surface when she would describe the suffering of non-believers burning in the flames of Hell.  She relished it. Later, I was explaining her attitude to a guy that went to her church.  He told me that he and other members told her she was simply wrong in her attitude toward others.  Of course, there wasn't any logic in that either.  He was every bit as dopey as she was, but just kinder.

Aren't people here the political equivalent?  Damning people at election time?
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Jagella

Quote from: Baruch on July 28, 2020, 10:52:47 AMThere are many thousand young girls in the US forced into prostitution.  Is this not slavery?  Are you saying that if the majority of a country are Christian, and they have under-age prostitution, that Christianity supports slavery?

I suppose anybody forced to labor like the prostitutes you mentioned are slaves of a sort.

I don't think I'd blame Christianity for "supporting" the forced prostitution of those poor girls, though, but we should look into the matter. Since Christianity is so prevalent in our society most people saying they derive their morals from it, it's important to ask why we have so much crime and if that crime is somehow rooted in Christianity.

Jagella

Quote from: Baruch on July 28, 2020, 10:54:21 AM
So your problem, like so many, is family related?  Sorry to hear.  But does that scale to a whole religion?

I think those experiences might "scale to a whole religion." If many other people are having problems with Christian relatives, then yes, Christianity may well be at the root of the problems I described in my family.

trdsf

Well, certainly the bible was used to justify slavery in America -- the Curse of Ham or the Mark of Cain and all that, even though the biblical text makes no mention of skin coloration.  The Mormons held to that until 1978 as their excuse to exclude Blacks from the Mormon priesthood; the Southern Baptist Convention didn't formally denounce racism and their role in supporting slavery until 1995.

And on the flip side, many leading abolitionists based their opposition to slavery on biblical teachings.  Which only really says that the bible says what you want it to say and hasn't any real meaning of its own.

That said, religion historically encourages an "us vs them" mindset, which is the first step towards prejudice and racism.    The number of wars over the last two millennia that didn't have a religious component is very small indeed -- religion is necessarily a philosophy of division where the adherents are "elect" and non-believers are at best "misguided" and usually worse.  And that's exactly the kind of mentality that almost necessarily leads to some form of institutionalized prejudice, be it racial or otherwise.

Religion, at its core, is designed to divide.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Hydra009

Quote from: trdsf on August 02, 2020, 08:04:49 PMThat said, religion historically encourages an "us vs them" mindset, which is the first step towards prejudice and racism.    The number of wars over the last two millennia that didn't have a religious component is very small indeed -- religion is necessarily a philosophy of division where the adherents are "elect" and non-believers are at best "misguided" and usually worse.  And that's exactly the kind of mentality that almost necessarily leads to some form of institutionalized prejudice, be it racial or otherwise.

Religion, at its core, is designed to divide.
Imo, the original purpose of religion was to aid in establishing the first civilizations, deliberately trying to create a shared culture and regulate behavior.  (Spoiler: it kinda got away from them)  The problem is that in-group favorability unavoidably breeds out-group hostility, which can manifest as racism.

Baruch

Humans use ready labels to determine potential enemies.  In particular, if you don't speak my language, or don't look like me.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.