[buddha-l] it's not about belief

[curt]

Richard P. Hayes wrote:

>Herr Steinmetz, you dramatically overstate the case when you try to
>portray Christianity as almost having a monopoly on irrationality and
>anti-scientific proclivities. You may need to do this to bolster your
>own faith in Korean Buddhism, which is psychologically understandable.
>But it does lead to rather shoddy thinking and scholarship, which
>undermines both good science and good Buddhist practice.
>
>  
>
I find it fascinating that there is this united-front of Christians and 
secularists insisting that Christianity is not a worst case scenario in 
terms of Religious tolerance, but that it is rather simply the norm. The 
reason for this united-front is obvious - once it is realized that 
intolerance is not an intrinsic feature of all Religions, the secularist 
dream of ridding humanity of Religion rather loses its appeal.

The biggest problem, as I see it, is that the study of religious 
tolerance has been seriously hampered by the assumption that all 
Religions are more or less equivalent in this regard. That this is a 
mere assumption seems pretty obvious to me. It is trivially easy to make 
an argument that Christianity is "systemically" intolerant, based on 
historical fact - in fact, such arguments are the bread and butter of 
the secularist intellectual diet. And when they are speaking about 
Christianity's intolerance, secularists love to throw around dates and 
names and historical references - the more specific, the better. But 
where are the similar arguments concerning any other Religion? And by 
"similar arguments" I don't mean an incident here or there followed by 
"see - we told you they were just as bad". Just as bad means just that - 
just as bad. If any other Religion (with the obvious exception of Islam) 
is just as bad, then it should be possible to make a case that is just 
as good. There should be something equivalent to the Inquisition. There 
should be Religious wars that last for decades. There should be burned 
books - hell, burned libraries - hell, the entire written literature of 
whole languages burned, destroyed - gone forever. There should be mass 
expulsions, secret trials, genocidal blood-lust spilling over entire 
continents - entire hemispheres. Slaves in chains dying by the millions. 
Huge swaths of the planet earth over which dozens of other Religions 
have been simply snuffed out. And there's got to be torture - lots of 
torture. And it should all be documented in their own words - in their 
own gloating, cold-blooded, self-righteous words. In fact, it should be 
so bad that to even begin to describe it should make one sound like a 
raving lunatic. Otherwise it just doesn't measure up.

- Curt