Reply To: Digital ID.

[Siderite]

The existence of other ideologies that have caused harm is not proof that Christianity is any better.

I have tried to stay out of this because I think it’s unfair for people to bring up religion on an unrelated post. I do not agree with your fundamentalist mindset, but don’t want to snark too much to make it seem like I dismiss the more moderate.

In the past, when Christianity was stronger in Europe, pre-enlightenment, many horrors were committed in the name of God. The genocide of the Cathars for being heretics, Crusades, where in the First Crusade, during the sacking of Jerusalem, Jews and Muslims had to scramble to tops of buildings to escape the slaughter for being heathens. Murder of Pagans in the Baltic region by Teutonic knights, the Spanish Inquisition, witch hunting and more. Jews and Romanies endured so much extreme discrimination and persecution by Christians, using the excuses that they are Christ killers or use Christian children for food.

This was the reality of Christian Europe for centuries. Sure, Christianity moderated post-enlightenment, but you have criticised enlightenment mindsets previously, and there has been Christian authoritarianism since. It wasn’t the end. Franco and Ante Pavelic, who was an eager collaborator in the Holocaust, were Christian and based their countries on the religion. Idol worshipping Catholics, so you might just dismiss them.

The problem isn’t godlessness when it comes to causing misery. The problem is ideological certainty and obsession, where people see themselves as being morally pure or right because of their religion or political persuasion. This can lead to dehumanising of the other because they are a different tribe and engage in taboos to the ideology which need to be stamped out, thus eliminating any kind of empathy that might cause the ideologue to refrain from empathy. Religion may give people comfort and a purpose, but it can lead to demonisation of those out of the religion, especially when they see those outside as being tricked by the Devil or in league with it. Politics can give a similar purpose to people and we need to have some sort of framework to believe society should be run by, but it can also lead to demonising others for not being part of your political view, since people think they are right and anyone against it must be wanting to harm society. Especially for the extremes, like fascism or communism, which asserts themselves to be right and makes arguments against those who disagree as being agents of the bourgeois or elite conspiring against the people.

The existence of intolerance outside of Christianity is not evidence that it can be better or that there aren’t other secular worldviews less prone to authoritarianism. You would no doubt see them as communism too and see authoritarianism there anyway because it suits.

I am not going into the talking animal nonsense because a book with unsubstantiated claims is better than evidence we have gleaned through science.