On Tolerance.

Religious tolerance in not preach by most organized religion, including Christianity, that’s why they always say that if you want to have friends never talk about religion and politics. Organized religion makes enemies than friends.

Christians have distrusted their fellow humans. We can’t blame him for that, remember, you are what you preach. Take a good look at these Bible verses and tell me if this is good samples of teaching love to all humans. 

                Deut. 20:10; 21:10-14; 13; 20:16-17, Lev. 25:46; 26:7-8, Numbers 1:51; 3:10; 18:10; 25:4-5; 25:17 and many other Bible verses that shows genocides, mass murders and massacres done by these “chosen people”. Blood and animal sacrifices were use to pacify the Christian God, and what is worst – He has to sacrifices His own Son to appease His wrath to mankind’s sin. Priest becomes a butcher, the church is his slaughterhouse. Adherents form an army – soldiers of God - with the blessing of the priest, to act their duty from God to obliterate heathen before these people send more believers to be dammed in hell. A Christian never respects other people rights to worship nor has he any respect to those people who never worship his god. He envisions himself to be God’s favorite and holds other people in contempt. In a division between saints and sinners, the Christian will make no compromised, either you acknowledge his doctrine and to compel to his beliefs or he will wage a “holy” war to you.

In 1208 20,000 crusading knights under Simon de Monfort attacked the town of Beziers in France by the orders of Pope Innocent III because it was believe that the Cathars were on that town. When soldiers asked the papal legate, Arnaud, abbot of Citeaux, how he could distinguish a Cathar and a good Catholic, Arnaud replied “Kill them all; God will know his own.” They slaughter the entire population of Beziers. In March 1244, after a ten-month siege, the Cathars in the fortress of Montsegur in the Pyrenees surrendered. Two hundred men and women walked out of the fortress singing, straight into the massive funeral pyres that the crusaders have prepared for them.

And who will forget the Crusade ¸ the Dark Ages and the Inquisitions?

The last remnants of sanity in Europe ended when Hypatia (370 – 415 CE) – the last scientist that worked in Alexandra was killed by Christian mobs and zealots by orders of Cyril, the Archbishop of Alexandria. These men of God dragged her from the chariot, tore off her clothes, and flayed her flesh using abalone shells. Now, these Christians even made Cyril a saint. When everything else fell apart in Europe, the Roman Catholic Church systematically organized itself into a ruling body. As most scholars say, when the Christian church ruled Europe, it was called the Dark Ages.

The Holy (?) Inquisition is the office of the Roman Catholic Church charge with suppressing and eradicating heresies. Let us read some accounts how Christianity defended its turf against other beliefs. Prisoners with their limbs wrenched from their sockets, or the bones of their legs and fingers crushed to a pulp, or suffering other atrocities, would finally admit to their accusations put to them by their interrogators. In the Inquisitional courts, the dice were cruelly loaded against the accused, Judges invariably assumed that the accused witch was guilty until proven innocent and there was virtually no chance to prove innocence. People were brought to trial on the merest hearsay, and once convicted were usually burned alive. Millions of people have been tortured, imprisoned and burned alive in the name of Christianity.

            1095 Pope Urban II inaugurated the Crusade at the Council of Clermont. It was an act that formally instituted war organized and administered by religion. Now history is plague by “holy wars” like the Hundred Years War, the 30 Years War and so on. Wars committed both by Catholics and Protestants because of religious fanaticism and exploitation of power.

            Even men of reasons were not spared. The works of materialist philosopher Democritus were destroyed. Epicurus was anathemized and was falsely depicted as the enemy of morality and a disseminator of vices. Pope Gregory I ordered the destruction of many valuable works of ancient authors. Progressive thinkers like Galileo and Ludilio Vanini were persecuted. Giordano Bruno was burned in the stake. Christianity spreads, not because of love, but on the bloody sword.

            Today, we are surrounded by Christian zealots and fanatics “acting in the name of the Christian God”. Christian rebels in Uganda are fighting for a Christian theocracy while abducting 2,000 children a year for enslavement in their camps. On June 1999, Serbian Orthodox Christian commits genocide against ethic Albanians.

            Christian declaration of war is not always bloody. Bible-thumping fanatics in the US are waging war against the Equal Rights Amendment, Separation of Church and State, Woman emancipation, science (specially the Theory of Evolution) and control over school boards.

            The problems with religion and intolerance have something to do with the “two-option” belief – that there are only two possible alternatives with organized religion – the true church and the devil’s work. Because of this idea, Christians think that it’s their god-given duty to eradicate the competition. Christians are still grinding their ax to engage other religious thoughts and philosophy which they considered to be the devil’s work.

            Voltaire was right when he compared atheism with religious fanaticism – “Which is more dangerous: fanaticism or atheism? Fanaticism is certainly a thousand times more deadly; for atheism inspired no bloody passion whereas fanaticism does; atheism is oppose to crime and fanaticism cause crimes to be committed.”

Before I end this article, let me re-phrase to you a teaching I found in the Avedas – a sacred book considered pagan by Christian standards: “I belong to five: to those who think good, to those who speak good, to those who do good, to those who hear, and to those who are pure.”