Church, state and doing what comes naturally

[davewitley]

Naama wrote:

> Of course Christianity is intolerant - 
> as an exclusive religion (such as Judaism and Islam) it has to be. 

I think it's worth unpicking the senses in which this statement is, 
and is not, true.

For many, if not most, Christians, Christianity is a revealed 
religion, which means inter alia that it contains statements that 
are accepted as true by its followers, and true in the sense that 
opposite of those statements must be false.

This means that, for many Christians, it is a corollary of their 
faith that some other people are wrong in their beliefs.  I believe 
the same is broadly true of Judaism and Islam (indeed it is hard to 
see the value of any belief system which gives no help in narrowing 
down the possible range of true assertions, but I digress).

In this sense these religions are intolerant of other beliefs, and 
each other, because their followers will declare things believed by 
others to be false.

Note that this is not the same as believing something 'in ones own 
opinion': I believe all people (except possibly those in a catatonic 
state) believe *some* things to be beyond opinion, to be validated 
outside themselves, and there should be no surprise that religious 
beliefs sometimes come into that category.

Now there are two very peculiar characteristics of human beings that 
come into play here.  The first is that many people, when they are 
told by somebody else that something they believe is incorrect, they 
feel persecuted.  The second is that when they see somebody 
believing something incorrect they feel that it is worth trying the 
use of force to change the other's mind.

Both these characteristics seem to me to be irrational, and many 
people do not share them.  However, they are widespread, as any 
observation of children arguing will rapidly discover.

When combined with the above remarks concerning the revealed 
religions, it can be seen to be pretty well inevitable that their 
histories will have intolerant episodes.  However, I believe that 
this is not intrinsic to the religions but to the nature of people 
as social beings trying to grapple with truth.

In summary, societies will always believe things, and consider that 
it is an appropriate response to those beliefs, to attack some other 
people who do not believe them.  Sometimes those things are 
religious in nature.

David