My argument is that Christianity, qua Christianity, does not cause people to do bad things. The Catholic Church has been the cause of some wrong
things due to mistakes in doctrine which have, in my opinion, nothing to do with the words of Christ. Intolerance of homosexuality, intolerance of
women, tolerance of slavery, desire to exterminate schismatics, none of that derives from Christ.
Using Christianity to justify slavery is a mistake in doctrine.
Terrible things have been done for centuries by people who mistakenly claimed that they were justified by the Bible, for the most part pouncing on terrible things that were done in the Old Testament. If the Patriarchs did it then it must be OK. You could use scripture to justify anything, as the saying goes, the Devil can quote scripture for his own purposes.
People have to justify in their own minds when they are doing wrong. They rationalize, come up with all kinds of justifications. A sober, dispassionate view of their reasoning shows the flaws. Most people are not very intelligent, most people are not very rational, most people are incapable of transcending their emotions.
If we were going to catalogue delusions of mankind, I expect that delusions caused by religious beliefs would be among the most common. I do not reject religion for that reason. You do. We disagree.
I don't want to change your mind. I posted on this thread because E sent me a link to a post in a PM. I don't really want to continue the discussion. |
