The Church wins the award for intolerance
From Matt Ridley in the Times. My favorite part is, “To say that religion is part of our culture, therefore we should cherish it, is a circular argument. The Church spent a thousand years intolerantly stamping out rival strands of culture, insisting that every ritual from birth to death be celebrated in its halls. So yes, it is part of my culture.”
For people who profess to be kind and tolerant, the defenders of Christianity can be remarkably unpleasant and intolerant. For all his frank and sometimes brusque bluster, I cannot think of anything that Richard Dawkins has said that is nearly as personally offensive as the insults that have been deluged upon his head in the past few days.
“Puffed-up, self-regarding, vain, prickly and militant,” snaps one commentator. Running a “Foundation for Enlightening People Stupider than Professor Richard Dawkins,” scoffs another. Descended from slave owners, smears a third, visiting the sins of a great-great-great-great-great- great-grandfather upon the son (who has made and given away far more money than he inherited).
In all the coverage of last week’s War of Dawkins Ear, there has been a consistent pattern of playing the man, not the ball: refusing to engage with his ideas but thinking only of how to find new ways to insult him. If this is Christian, frankly, you can keep it.
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You’re currently reading “The Church wins the award for intolerance,” an entry on Bodhipaksa's blog, bodhi tree swaying
Published: Feb 21 2012
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Category: Religion & Society
Christianity’s obsession with creationism is an opportunity for Buddhism: http://seanrobsville.blogspot.com/2012/01/creationism-crisis-for-christianity.html
Thanks, Sean.
When I read “As Christianity dumbs down, could Buddhism become more attractive to rational people in search of a religion?” my first thought was that it’s already doing so. But then my next thought was that Buddhism in the west has to find narratives that are compelling to people who are not so intellectually inclined.