On the topic of intolerance....?

Question

Eric Hoffer (1902-83) a US philosopher said:

" To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his his brand of intolerance."

Your views on this?

Answer 1

It is said that those who hate the same people that their god hates have created God in their own image. I'm inclined to agree with that. It's sickening to see what people will profess in their God(s) name(s)... I 've seen incest, murder, racism and even infanticide accepted because one's 'God' accepts killing of one's enemies. It's scary. Very very scary. What's even scarier is that every person you talk to will have a different definition of what those 'enemies' are! Most of the time they fume against the people the person can't stand the most. And there's cultural trends according to world politics. In the 1940's it was the Germans and Japanese. Today it's the Arabs and anyone of Islamic persuasion. Who will it be next year?

Answer 2

Rubbish.

Religion and intolerance have nothing to do with eachother.
Intolerance is created, promoted and used by certain vested
interests to undermine the fabrique of a society or culture. It is not a natural part of any religion.
Mr Hoffer totally missed the boat on this one. (Never heard of him actually.... no wonder)

Consider this:

A society is capable of surviving for thousands of years unless it is attacked from within or without by hostile forces. where such an attack occurs, the primary targets are it's religious and national gods and heroes,it's potential of leadership and the self respect and integrity of it's members.
If you look around you , you will find countless examples of these points. They scream at us every day from the newspapers and TV.
Probably the most critical point of attack on a culture is it's religious experience. Where one can destroy or undermine religious institutions then the entire fabiric of the society can be quickly subverted or brought to ruin.
For the last hundred years or so religion has been beset with relentless attack. You have been told it’s the “opiate of the masses “, that it’s unscientific, that it is primitive, in short , that it is a delusion.
The source of this kind of attack is always covert and hidden. It is promoted by a few who have a vested interest in a slave society.
Unfortunately these few rely on creating fear and insecurity in others
to forward and promote their enemy propaganda. These others feel correctly they have to defend themselves from an attack, but because the real enemy is hidden, they can be manipulated to attack what they really should be defending as they cannot see the real enemy.

The key here is that underneath all these attacks on organised religion there is one fundemental target:
The spirituality of man, your own basic spiritual nature, self respect and peace of mind.

Answer 3

I think its a rather jaded view of religion. Yes, some form of interance seems to be present in a whole lot of religious people (although there's also a lot of intolance in non-religious people as well...I've lost count of the number of atheists who had stated that the religious are deluded fools). However, this aspect is not what generally defines a religion. It also may be personal to the person involved, not common to his religion at all. For instance, there are a lot of Wiccans who are angry and Christianity and have nothing pleasant to say about Satanists. That's not to say all Wiccans believe this, nor that Wicca teaches people to hate these two religions. Hence, in discovering this intolerance in a sample of Wiccans, you have still not learned an actual thing about their religion.

Answer 4

A person's intolerance shows exactly where they put their foot down. This is a perfect representation of their beliefs.

I, being a scientific man, am kinda hard to decipher though as everything has it's category. I don't let any theory go by without putting it where it belongs.

Answer 5

It speaks volumes. To know a persons' true self you must watch his actions, not listen to his proclaimations. Good quote!

Answer 6

Insightful there.

That's kinda like the saying

One learns more about a person from what he/she says about others than from what others say about him/her.

How about this one?

Until one understands the opinions and arguments of one opponents, one does not truly understand ones own.

Answer 7

Nice thought...in all belief systems there is certain level of intolerance toward all other belief systems.

Answer 8

I am intolerant of of those who are intolerant. Likewise, I am offended by people who are easily offended.

Answer 9

Garbalydoop!!

Answer 10

Right on the money, buddy