Religion Encourage Intolerance and Ignorance?: Philosophy Forums

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Religion Encourage Intolerance and Ignorance?

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Religion Encourage Intolerance and Ignorance?

SixShotsByMoonlight
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Posted 02/20/07 - 02:26 PM: Subject: Religion Encourage Intolerance and Ignorance?	#1
I have to write a paper to express one of my views in life and right now I think I'm going to write about how organized religion can lead to intolerance and ignorance. I was interested in seeing other people's opinions or even refute my ideas before I start writing. Christians I know never try to learn things for themselves.Sort of along the lines of Kierkegaard I believe that faith should be a personal journey and they should break away from controlled thought and develop their own ideas, something Christians I know never do. Believing completely in Jesus, they follow their church leader and they think they'll go to heaven. Many followers of a religion never take time to learn about other religions something that hinders them. How can they choose to follow a religion without look at alternatives? People seem to stick to the religion in their region and ignore or disregard others since they think they are false. By the followers not learning for themselves, organized religion creates ignorance and intolerance. Their ignorance creates dislike and hatred,as in extremist Islam breeding hatred for Christianity and Judaism. Their intolerance and disregard make them unable to see the opposition's side. Does anyone agree with me or have any points that I'm mistaken about? I'm not trying to get you guys to write it for me I just want to know where to start. I'm not trying to attack religion just the banality and mediocrity organized religion creates.

Mr.Anonymous
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Posted 02/20/07 - 02:44 PM:	#2
First off, welcome to Philosophy Forums. Second, do you think that, say, Communism and Socialism are any better? Nazism? Eugenics? Atheism? I have seen plenty of atheists demonstrate the same ignorance and intolerance found in theists. Both groups are humans, therefore flawed, so that means that the problem is not in the belief system. Afterall, humans can screw up just about any belief system. I have also met plenty of people from both sides who demonstate tolerance and wisdom all the time. You can't say that all Christians and such are going to be intolerant ignorants like the ones you may happen to experience in your life. Take me for example. For the most part, I am Catholic, but I study the other major religions too. Nor do I have any intolerance for atheists, save for the followers of Communism and Nazism, as both have done great evil in their reigns. I also accept evolution and other sciences.
Hi.

Distortion
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Posted 02/20/07 - 03:16 PM:	#3
'Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -- unknown' Willfill ignorance (aka: believing something because someone told you to; aka, belief without substantiation) is always going to inherently create conflict. After all, how can you reason with someone who doesn't subscribe to reason? Edited by Distortion on 02/20/07 - 03:21 PM
Make your own rules.

Nagase
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Posted 02/20/07 - 03:37 PM:	#4
SixShotsByMoonlight; Sociology of religion is a rather difficult topic, and can be very difficult to write about if you don't know the classics. While he didn't deal with the tolerance aspect of religion per se, I really recommend you read Max Weber's works on the subject, beginning with The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit" of Capitalism; it will probably help you to get more acquainted with the topic. What many critics of religion don't realize is that its influence in our lives is far-reaching, as well as subtle, so that what you initially thought was a secular concept may have religious undertones beneath this appearance.
"(...)No battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools." â€” William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

Cadrache
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Posted 02/20/07 - 04:05 PM:	#5
Also note that the religion itself is usually not the culprit. The key, that was stated a couple of times stems from the 'socio' aspect, aka, the group aspect of humanity. Welcome by the way... as an afterthought :P I did note however your keen interest in the aspect of 'leader', throughout your post. It seems like you are questioning following a set of guidelines. I can't, or won't help you with which books to read, though a particular author's definition of 'tunnel-vision', or 'funnel-vision' applied to your intolerance and ignorance aspect of your statement for writing will probably be an interesting point to look at. (alas, when I look at a subject, peoples' names are usually the unimportant part)

rabeldin
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Posted 02/20/07 - 04:40 PM:	#6
Cadrache wrote: Also note that the religion itself is usually not the culprit. The key, that was stated a couple of times stems from the 'socio' aspect, aka, the group aspect of humanity. The main problem with religion is that it is so easily abused by cynical leaders searching for a means to power.
Leave no assumption unquestioned.

SixShotsByMoonlight
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Posted 02/20/07 - 09:21 PM:	#7
Sorry if anyone thought I was attacking Christianity directly. It is just the organized religion I've been exposed to most. I don't want to necessarily attack religion more attack the lack of passion people have to find their own answers and how that leads them to trouble. Thanks for the insights. I'm going to try and get reading that Weber and see what I can learn.

Mr.Anonymous
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Posted 02/20/07 - 10:04 PM:	#8
SixShotsByMoonlight wrote: Sorry if anyone thought I was attacking Christianity directly. It is just the organized religion I've been exposed to most. I don't want to necessarily attack religion more attack the lack of passion people have to find their own answers and how that leads them to trouble. Thanks for the insights. I'm going to try and get reading that Weber and see what I can learn. You are most welcome, SixShotsByMoonlight (wow, long name). And no need to appologize. Well, at least not to me. I've been offended in so many ways that there is hardly anything that gets me worked up anymore. In any event, what I was get at is that there is no fault in organized religion, but in those who attempt to follow it. Christianity has been twisted by flawed humans in so many ways that I lose count. It's members have also suffered from this. Once they were a peaceful, loving community. Then they were turned into intolerant barbarians who wanted to kill the hell out of the Muslims (who want to do the same to the Christians today). Now they are pacifistic to the point where it's actually depressing, save for the Bible Belt area, but I expect that will eventually change. Anyway, hope that also gives you insight.
Hi.

philosophy
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Posted 02/20/07 - 11:02 PM:	#9
I think I'm going to write about how organized religion can lead to intolerance and ignorance. There are some counterpoints that you will need to address. Christians I know never try to learn things for themselves. Is this really a statement about Christians, or about your sample of data? Such a statement seems difficult to reconcile with the historical data, where there are libraries full of texts written by Christians who discovered new things. The historical impact of Christianity on fields of knowledge is a difficulty for your thesis. If Christianity truly spawns ignorance, then we would not see the advent of the modern university, which developed directly from the Medieval cathedral school, nor modern scientific methods, which were fostered by High Medieval clergymen (the fathers of almost all fields, from genetics to optics, are clergy), or the explosion of literature and philosophical exploration in the Late Antique Roman Empire, which occurred once Christianity was the state religion. People seem to stick to the religion in their region and ignore or disregard others since they think they are false. By the followers not learning for themselves, organized religion creates ignorance and intolerance. Their ignorance creates dislike and hatred, as in extremist Islam breeding hatred for Christianity and Judaism. Their intolerance and disregard make them unable to see the opposition's side. Islamic terrorism is not directed at a hatred for Christianity. None of the bombings, for example, have been of church buildings or shrines. Islamic hatred is for Western decadence, and the prevalence of immorality in the West, from an Islamic point of view, is because Christianity has failed to do its job. I have heard (some) Islamic men here in England say that Islamic law should be established for the good of the country, and they dislike English culture in that "English women are sluts and English men are drunkards". The point is, its secularism and its fruit that Islam hates in the West, not Christianity. As for Judaism, Muslims in the Middle East think that the Jews have mistreated the Palestinians and for that reason they disdain them - here religion becomes swept up in a political problem that would exist regardless. Sort of along the lines of Kierkegaard I believe that faith should be a personal journey and they should break away from controlled thought and develop their own ideas, something Christians I know never do. But Kierkegaard seems to be against your position, since he advocated the blind (irrational) exercise of faith. Classical (orthodox) Christianity rejects blind faith as an error and insists that faith not be at variance with reason (though it does go beyond the limits of reason, of course).
There is no more pleasant food for the soul than the knowledge of truth. - Lactantius

BlackRock
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Posted 02/21/07 - 02:27 PM:	#10
Hi, Basically I agree with the view that religion can lead to intolerance and ignorance, although thats not exclusive of religion, but of every ideology based on dogma or revelation and reluctant to change. That includes religion or nazism, socialism... Im not a religious person, but a scientific one. What do I mean but this? Lets see first what is the most important thing of science. IT COULD BE SAID THAT IN SCIENCE NO THEORY IS ACTUALLY EVER CONSIDERED TRUE, BUT, NOT PROVEN WRONG YET. This is a huge differnce. It means that when one scientist makes up a theory, then a thousand other scientists will work very hard trying to find contradictions, flaws or disagreements with experience. You could consider Newtown's laws of physics, they were considered correct for more than a hundred years, until experiments at very high speed, only possible to do so much later, proved them incorrect, and theory of relativity was to replace Newtown's laws. Theory of relativity is not by any means true, but just not proven wrong yet. Im very sorry to deviate from the subject so much, and maybe for possible innacuracies on physics, but the point is made. Also sorry if my english is not too good at times. Of course I disregard faith, revelation or the opinion of one single man, as to be the source of truth. There is only one way to truth and this is dialogue, discussion and arguments, challenging everything all the time, encouraging this. Knowledge is a path, not a goal. As an analogy you could consider that its only when you mix all colours together that you get bright white light. You have to be open for everything, from the past and present. And realize that there is gonna be a future with new ideas, so probably all our ideas will be wrong some day, when more information becomes available or when our brain is more capable. So only one thing we can do, open our minds as much as possible. If religion did the same, then there should be much more argument and questioning of everything. Of course many of the things that religions are based upon are well in the past for millennia, and therefore impossible to prove them wrong or right today (like resurrection of the Christ, his miracles, or whatever other religions are based upon too (sorry I don't point examples on other religions, I don't want to acuse solely christianity, its just I don't know much about other religions fondamental beliefs)).Why werent they questioned back then?More ignorance (and fear therefore) than now, more poverty, more power by the figure of the priest/druid/... But maybe there are other things than could be questioned today. For example the value of prayer, how can be justified then the death of innocent children in third world despite they are christians and possibly better ones than the ones in the first world (sorry again for pointing only christianism)?If anyone is interested in arguing about what contradictions I am referring to, Im sure I could bring up many more examples of contradictions where religious people seem to just dont want to see. All these contradictions is what made me abandon the religious beliefs I was taught as a child, the fact that I realized it doesnt make any sense, it doesnt add up. So as religions are reluctant to thoroughful discussion and questioning of their beliefs, yes, I consider them to lead to ignorance and intolerance

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