Religion spreads hate & intolerance

darkendless said:

All reports point to their bible. So basically they're intolerant because of the bible tells them to. Why would God do that?

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Because homosexuality intolerance was taught in the Old Testament. When the human race was young was when the events in the Old Testament was written. Back then homosexuality had to be intolerated, to ensure the human race's survival. No such thing as artificial insemination back then.

Things have changed dramatically since the Old Testament days. While being gay is still a sin, Jesus taught us to not throw the first stone unless we have not sinned our selves. Being human we have all sinned in some way, it is inevitable. So if someone truly follows Jesus we should know to tolerate them at the very least, and love them like anyone else in the best case scenario. What you describe as religon hating and spreading intolerance is not the fault of religion. But the fault of stubborn people who prejudice because they do not know any better. I know many of close minded bigot non-christians here on this site. Christianity does not teach hate and intolerance if you follow it correctly. I would hope that no religion would.

Enoch07 said:

Because homosexuality intolerance was taught in the Old Testament. When the human race was young was when the events in the Old Testament was written. Back then homosexuality had to be intolerated, to ensure the human race's survival. No such thing as artificial insemination back then.

Things have changed dramatically since the Old Testament days. While being gay is still a sin, Jesus taught us to not throw the first stone unless we have not sinned our selves. Being human we have all sinned in some way, it is inevitable. So if someone truly follows Jesus we should know to tolerate them at the very least, and love them like anyone else in the best case scenario. What you describe as religon hating and spreading intolerance is not the fault of religion. But the fault of stubborn people who prejudice because they do not know any better. I know many of close minded bigot non-christians here on this site. Christianity does not teach hate and intolerance if you follow it correctly. I would hope that no religion would.

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Then why aren't homosexual civil unions allowed in the USA? The LDS spent a lot of time and money blocking such rights. WHat is their problem?

Also, have you seen some of the posts on this site? Intolerance hasn't changed. There are more hateful and intolerant christians in rgards to homosexuality than not.

darkendless said:

Then why aren't homosexual civil unions allowed in the USA? The LDS spent a lot of time and money blocking such rights. WHat is their problem?

Also, have you seen some of the posts on this site? Intolerance hasn't changed. There are more hateful and intolerant christians in rgards to homosexuality than not.

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Go back 10 years ago....20 years ago......30 years ago....so on and so on. The further you go back the more intolerable Christians have been of homosexuality. Slowly but surely homosexuality is being accepted more and more everyday. It will be only a matter of time before it is fully accepted with full rights. 10 years....20 years tops. Hell 20 years ago you could not even openly be gay without fearing for your life. Now we have almost entire cities of openly gay people. What you have seen on this site is 4 or 5 intolerant people vs 100 accepting people. You are just focusing in on the negative as opposed to seeing the positive.

Enoch07 said:

Go back 10 years ago....20 years ago......30 years ago....so on and so on. The further you go back the more intolerable Christians have been of homosexuality. Slowly but surely homosexuality is being accepted more and more everyday. It will be only a matter of time before it is fully accepted with full rights. 10 years....20 years tops. Hell 20 years ago you could not even openly be gay without fearing for your life. Now we have almost entire cities of openly gay people. What you have seen on this site is 4 or 5 intolerant people vs 100 accepting people. You are just focusing in on the negative as opposed to seeing the positive.

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.......... and we havn't even considered the Islamic perspective.

I agree, it seems, to me at least that the Church is losing its power over the people. People don't care what the clergy preach, and why should they. Socially acceptable issues do not always and shouldn't always reflect a christian message like they have in the past.

On here there are quite a few fundamentalists. Since the gay issue has been very heated on occasions, i fear many posters here know better than to participate in these threads to avoid comming under fire.

darkendless said:

.......... and we havn't even considered the Islamic perspective.

I agree, it seems, to me at least that the Church is losing its power over the people. People don't care what the clergy preach, and why should they. Socially acceptable issues do not always and shouldn't always reflect a christian message like they have in the past.

On here there are quite a few fundamentalists. Since the gay issue has been very heated on occasions, i fear many posters here know better than to participate in these threads to avoid comming under fire.

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I think it is more the case of people are becoming more aware of the true word of God, but I pretty much agree with you. A lot of churches have their own agenda. That is why it is important for all Christians to know and truly understand the Bible for themselves as opposed to listening what a man says it is. Even if it is a clergy man.

OmarKhayyam said:

Ah, the irony.

From a mythology that for nearly 2000 yrs. has opposed virtually EVERY scientific discovery.

There is a reason they were called the Dark Ages and the end was marked by the EnLIGHTenment.

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Dark ages was the apostacy. The true church was not on the Earth during the dark ages.

The restoration of the true church was marked by enlightenment.

2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people...
(Old Testament | Isaiah 60:2)

11Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a afamine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
(Old Testament | Amos 8:11 - 12)
Apostasy of the Early Christian Church
Isa. 24:5 changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant
Isa. 29:13 this people draw near me with their mouth
Isa. 60:2 darkness shall cover the earth
Amos 8:11 a famine ... of hearing the words of the Lord
Matt. 13:25 his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat
Matt. 24:5 saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many
Matt. 24:24 shall arise false Christs, and false prophets
John 6:66 his disciples went back, and walked no more with him
Acts 20:29 shall grievous wolves enter in among you
1 Cor. 11:18 there be divisions among you
Gal. 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him
Gal. 3:1 who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey
2 Thes. 2:3 shall not come, except there come a falling away first
1 Tim. 1:6 some having swerved have turned aside
1 Tim. 4:1 giving heed to seducing spirits
2 Tim. 1:15 all they which are in Asia be turned away from me
2 Tim. 2:18 Who concerning the truth have erred
2 Tim. 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power
2 Tim. 4:4 turn away their ears from the truth ... unto fables
Titus 1:16 profess that they know God, but in works they deny him
James 4:1 From whence came wars and fightings among you
2 Pet. 2:1 false prophets also among the people
2 Pet. 3:17 being led away with the error of the wicked
1 Jn. 2:18 now are there many antichrists
1 Jn. 4:1 many false prophets are gone out into the world
Jude 1:4 certain men crept in ... denying the only Lord God
Rev. 2:2 which say they are apostles, and are not
Rev. 3:16 thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot
Rev. 13:7 to make war with the saints
1 Ne. 13:26 foundation of a great and abominable church
2 Ne. 26:20 the Gentiles ... have stumbled
2 Ne. 27:1 Gentiles ... will be drunken with iniquity
Morm. 8:33 transfigured the holy word of God
D&C 1:15 strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant
D&C 86:3 Satan ... soweth the tares
D&C 112:23 darkness covereth the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people
JS-H 1:19 they were all wrong, ... their hearts are far from me
See also Matt. 24:11; Rom. 11:21; 1 Cor. 1:11; 3:3; Col. 2:22; 1 Tim. 1:19; Titus 1:10; 2 Pet. 2:22; 3 Jn. 1:9; Rev. 2:5; 1 Ne. 11:34.
(Topical Guide | A Apostasy of the Early Christian Church:Entry)

OmarKhayyam said:

"everything is religious if God exists and allows it.'

Then bring your god around for a chat. A few questions will settle this entire matter.

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Weaning – or encouraging Autonomous Learning by Larry Spence

At 8:30 AM she stood up in class. I wanted to sit. She glared, shooting me with her eyes. “I’m paying good money for this class,” her thin hands shook. “My parents are sacrificing. It’s your job to just tell us what this book means.” She waved a worn copy of Immanuel Kant’s essay, On the old saw: That May be true in Theory but it does not Apply in Practice.


“I can do that, but it will burden the rest of your life.”

“what do you mean?”

“You will always have to take me with you. If you marry, I’ll be there. On your honeymoon, I’ll be there. You will need a special room to keep me in your house. I misplace coffee cups and scatter paper clips. I’ll need a desk next to yours at work. A special seat where I can work in your car…”

“Stop it!” she shouted. “I don’t want to drag a professor through life.”

“Good,” I said. “Then I can’t tell you what the book means. Think of all the books, articles, policy papers, and memos that you will have to read. If you don’t know how to understand them, you will be lost as a citizen, a worker, and an individual. So you can either figure out what Kant means or you can adopt me for life.”

The class’s growing laughter filled the room as they imagined living with a seriously uncool prof. “But weren’t you paid to teach us?” asked a burly tight end.

“No, it is my job to see that you learn how to discover the meaning yourself.”

“This class is weird,” came a comment from the baseball cap section.

Students expectation that I could explain the world marred every course I taught. Their intellectual dependence was frightening. On bad days, they were so docile and dependent I understood how good storm troopers were made… But Oh, in the classroom the dependency is sticky and thick. Students seem indifferent, confused, and desirous only of getting this grade, that course, and eventually the big ticket degree. The best strive for that special relationship, “teacher’s pet.” They work to say all those things that feed faculty egos. For many years, I saw little hope of developing autonomous learners. Then I made a discovery.

A group of my students toured with a national champion drum and bugle corps. I went to see them perform. Their precision, quality, and panache astounded me.I could not believe they were the same creatures that shuffled through my courses. They worked twelve hours a day on their musical skills, slept on gym floors, and were driven from city to city without relief. They wre disciplined adults.
I walked away with words like “co-dependency” and “enabling” ringing in my ears. My best efforts taught students that to learn was to follow instructions. They didn’t need that or my careful explanations, or my crafted syllabi. They needed access to the world’s scholarship and some tough coaching like they got in the bugle corps. And most of all they needed choice and opportunities to pursue their own passions for inquiry and expression.

Maybe we smother the best learning instincts of our students. Seymour Papert writes, “ the scandal of education is that every time you teach something, you deprive a child of the pleasure of discovery.” Maybe we should stop chewing and pre-digesting the intellectual food we give our students. We need not joke and enact an excitement we wish they had. We need focus on learning, and not the comfort of the learners.

In earlier times, people took the passion and energy of adolescents as signs of maturity. They weaned them on responsibilities. The impetuous George Washington was surveying frontier lands by the age of sixteen. By 21, with only a few months of formal education, he could ford rivers, chart mountains, charm legislators, and lead troops. Lord Fairfax wrote his mother that he was, “a man who will go to school all his life.” Washington’s classrooms were the forest, the battlefield, and the halls of government. He never asked what was going to be in the final.

darkendless said:

I agree, it seems, to me at least that the Church is losing its power over the people.

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Here are the numbers:
http://www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org/reports/ARIS_Report_2008.pdf

from 86% to 76% over the last 10 years. (not all denoms fit this - LDS is still growing)

Enoch07 said:

I That is why it is important for all Christians to know and truly understand the Bible for themselves as opposed to listening what a man says it is.

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If they are a man - wouldn't listening to yourself be listening to a man?

A prophet is needed.

PROPHET. See also President; Prophecy, Prophesy; Revelation; Seer
A person who has been called by and speaks for God. As a messenger of God, a prophet receives commandments, prophecies, and revelations from God. His responsibility is to make known God's will and true character to mankind and to show the meaning of his dealings with them. A prophet denounces sin and foretells its consequences. He is a preacher of righteousness. On occasion, prophets may be inspired to foretell the future for the benefit of mankind. His primary responsibility, however, is to bear witness of Christ. The President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's prophet on earth today. Members of the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles are sustained as prophets, seers, and revelators.
Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, Num. 11:29. If there be a prophet, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, Num. 12:6. The Lord testified against Israel by all the prophets, 2 Kgs. 17:13 (2 Chr. 36:15–16; Jer. 7:25). I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations, Jer. 1:5, 7. He revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets, Amos 3:7. He spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, Luke 1:70 (Acts 3:21). All the prophets witnessed of Christ, Acts 10:43. God hath set prophets in the Church, 1 Cor. 12:28 (Eph. 4:11). The Church is built on a foundation of Apostles and prophets, Eph. 2:19–20. The people have rejected the words of the prophets, 1 Ne. 3:17–18 (2 Ne. 26:3). By the Spirit are all things made known unto the prophets, 1 Ne. 22:1–2. Christ came to the Nephites to fulfill all he had spoken by the mouths of his holy prophets, 3 Ne. 1:13 (D&C 42:39). Those who will not give heed to the words of prophets shall be cut off, D&C 1:14. Those who believe the words of the prophets have eternal life, D&C 20:26. The prophet's word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, D&C 21:4–6. Revelations and commandments for the Church come only through the one appointed, D&C 43:1–7. The duty of the President is to preside over the whole Church and to be like unto Moses, to be prophet, D&C 107:91–92. We believe in prophets, A of F 1:6.
(Guide to the Scriptures | P Prophet.:Entry)

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Unless you are a prophet, then it is the words/understanding of a man.

Funny homosexuality comes in to play so much when all anyone has to do is look at the animal kingdom... it's full of homosexual activities and yet, no animal species has ever been accused of extinction because of homosexual activities within that species. So I doubt that the reason being "gay" or "bi" was cursed back then to preserve and perpetuate the human race... more like something to gripe about because it creates so much insecurity in some people. So then why would God create an animal kingdom as well as a human race with tendencies for any of the three sexual choices and turn around and condemn the very God-given nature inherent in all living animals including humans? Gay bashing is again, intolerance... something that STARTED by historical religious nuts condemning the acts. Sure there's many who are tolerant of a persons RIGHT to choose how he/she lives... but there's way, way more than "just a few fundies" that oppose... it's still widespread... bottom line... no church, no religion and frankly no government has a right to tell people what they can or cannot do in the privacy of their own home with another consenting adult. The less "people" try to control what other people do, say and think, the quicker we get on the same page of equality. Probably not going to happen in this country for another 100 years if it ever does... why? Because of the people out there that will respond to this and say "God doesn't make gays... that mean ol' devil does." By the way, interpretation-wise, there not one ABSOLUTE reference in the bible that absolutely states homosexual activity is wrong. Even if it said "all gays go to hell"... still, it's coming from a mish-mash of erroneous books slapped together that also tells people it's okay to kill under certain circumstances, give your daughters away for sex... and pay taxes. lol Now it THAT isn't proof it's a tool designed to instill fear and ultimately, control, I don't know what else is.

I don't believe the bible to be a true book or word of God. He would have done it much better and certainly there would be no room for speculation or guessing at what was meant... and yet, here we are. To me, that's proof it's just a book, nothing more.

darkendless said:

Then why aren't homosexual civil unions allowed in the USA? The LDS spent a lot of time and money blocking such rights. WHat is their problem?

Also, have you seen some of the posts on this site? Intolerance hasn't changed. There are more hateful and intolerant christians in rgards to homosexuality than not.

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Sadly we will always have hateful christians,as I have said befor no one knows the future, or what Jesus might do with this person or that person,as christians we need to look and act toward that person as if they are saved,with love and respect.For all have sinned and fall short the glory of God.

So who else are Christians taught to be intolerant of other than homosexuals?(I want Bible teachings, not statements that KKK members call themselves Christians and stuff like that).

ChristineES said:

So who else are Christians taught to be intolerant of other than homosexuals?(I want Bible teachings, not statements that KKK members call themselves Christians and stuff like that).

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If I understand your question,it's not who but what.

Easy and simple answer... Anyone that doesn't believe the way they do.

InfinityUnlocked said:

Easy and simple answer... Anyone that doesn't believe the way they do.

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I personally try to accept other's beliefs. I know there are other Christians who do. Is this also where I am in the minority?

ChristineES said:

I personally try to accept other's beliefs. I know there are other Christians who do. Is this also where I am in the minority?

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Sadly... yes.

ChristineES said:

I personally try to accept other's beliefs. I know there are other Christians who do. Is this also where I am in the minority?

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Hit the submit button too soon...

I no longer try to accept other people's beliefs... I just live with the knowledge that everyone has their own opinion and are entitled to that opinion so long as their opinion doesn't infringe on my opinion... likewise as they would appreciate the favor. Sounds good but it's another one of those seemingly impossible destinations... maybe it's the journey that matters and the growth or lack of that one gets from the journey.

ChristineES said:

So who else are Christians taught to be intolerant of other than homosexuals?(I want Bible teachings, not statements that KKK members call themselves Christians and stuff like that).

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I don't think intolerant is the right word.

By the way... trying to accept other people's beliefs for whatever reason you would want to attempt that... remember, we're topping seven billion people in this world... that's a LOT of individual beliefs to try to accept... that's where it get's icky & sticky... life's hard enough sometimes without worrying what other people believe or think... until of course the cycle comes around and bites me in the rear and I have someone trying to push their belief on me as the truth when in fact no one and I mean no one can provide real proof... myself included.

gzusfrk said:

I don't think intolerant is the right word.

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pardon us... then what would be the correct word?