Does religion promote racism?

[lightgigantic]

A lot of the more conservative religious folk in our communities.. .mostly with calvanistic backgrounds... tend to be the most racist.

They all believe that they are doing the lords work, etc etc... but all tend to place great emphasis on race.

I was wondering if you had noticed the same in your communities?

It might not be the religion that promotes it, and it might just be that very racist and very religious people just think less than moderate religious people and atheists. Im not sure..

BG 5.29: A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries.

IOW as long as a person thinks

1. that they are deserving of the results of their "hard work",
   
2. that they have an excessive attachment to mastering this world or any of its contents,
   
3. and that the underlying problem of others is that they don't see them as a brilliant person,

there will always be a cause for dissension, argument, separation.

It doesn't matter whether such persons exist in such a state under the guise of religion or not (although if a person doesn't have the scope for including god in their world picture, its even less clear how they propose the world can exist in a unified state)

 

[quadraphonics]

A lot of the more conservative religious folk in our communities.. .mostly with calvanistic backgrounds... tend to be the most racist.

They all believe that they are doing the lords work, etc etc... but all tend to place great emphasis on race.

I was wondering if you had noticed the same in your communities?

It might not be the religion that promotes it, and it might just be that very racist and very religious people just think less than moderate religious people and atheists. Im not sure..

Religions, by their nature, emphasize values that reinforce membership in the religion. Broadly, this includes things like in-group solidarity and stigmatiziation of outsiders (the saved vs. the damned, so to speak). More conservative religions place a greater emphasis on these sorts of values (at the expense of other more liberal values), and so tend to attract more chauvinistic followers. Which is to say, people who place a great emphasis on reinforcement of their group identity. When a group of such followers happens to have additional traits in common (besides just membership in the same religion), then it is very easy for those traits to become intertwined with the religious identity.

To put it shortly, the type of people that go in for conservative religions are the type of people who are predisposed to hate anyone different from them. Whether religion makes them racist, or they make their religion racist, is sort of a chicken-and-egg problem, but there is no question that the interaction between the two works to reinforce various bigotries.

 

[Adstar]

Well duh, i mean no offense but in every religion except maybe buddhism, have some sort of writing in them that tells the religion to condemn other people of different religions.

And we have history to prove for this. Do you think that there was any legitimate reason for the inquisition? No it was just religious racism.

Some translations of the Qu'ran say that "the infidel" must be destroyed.

Im sure there is some part in the Jewish religion, but i would probably be a little biased as far as that goes because i am Jewish.

But now that schools are teaching religious acceptance, people are resisting these effects.

But that is not racism.

There is no "infidel" race. That term means unbeliever. As for the inquisition again it was an action against those who did not accept the authroity of the catholic leadership and again it was not about race.

i add that i do not agree with either the inquisition or the many jihad actions against infidels that have occured through history, But again. They where not about race.


All Praise The Ancient Of Days

 

[w1z4rd]

Oh please, Memri TV? uke:

Thats Israeli propaganda

Ive seen this kinda stuff come straight outta Saudi SAM.. trying to find an excuse to put your head in the sand is shameful by my morality. Ive basically seen this happen a couple of times, and so I look at you with intense distrust now.

 

[S.A.M.]

I bet you have. I lived in Saudi Arabia for 5 years and I never saw anything like that. But I suppose if you look hard enough, you'll find such kooks anywhere. Ever hear any of Avidor Leiberman's speeches?