Why are the most religious people usually the most intollerant? Most faiths seem to have extremists?

Question

All faiths claim they are not yet this is the behaviour from many? Are they hypocrites? Just readings the Q& A here would seem so....

Answer 1

You can tell how warped and false a religion is by how it treats people, animals and plants. Twisted beliefs make for twisted actions.

Answer 2

I think that any spirituality is a continuum; a line with something like atheism at one end and total madness at the other end.

Now, just short of atheism, a person admits to some sort of belief(s). They might seem ridiculous to you. They might seem odd, like Rastafarians or snake handlers, but the point is, people begin "believing" in something.

For the sake of labels, I see myself as a Deist. I acknowledge the existence of a God, but I don't understand him in the least. I acknowledge that someone is responsible for the natural beauty around me which I enjoy.

Then, further down the line, people start getting deeper and deeper into spirituality.

Some exhibit an intense need, a motivation, to attend numerous prayer meetings or scriptural study groups, or just weekly church services.

They have this "need" that needs to be filled, whatever it is.

They need to feel "part of the collective."

They think their Creator requires them to do this and to conduct "worship services" toward Him.

Further down the line, we find people that are just so all-consumed with religious fervor that they spend a major part of their time engaged in the above activities; study groups, prayer groups, etc.

Now, some people actually "walk the walk" and dedicate their entire life towards helping others. I think that is a beautiful thing, and a kind of "ultimate sacrifice." They put the needs and well-being of others ahead of their own.

And then, toward the far end of the line - at the more aggressive and violent end - we have the people you're talking about.

I've met some of these people face to face, and they're positively scary. Most of them are only a hair's breadth away from carrying a weapon in one hand and a book in the other.

They think that their God gives them total license to get up in other people's faces and aggressively insult them "in the name of the Lord;" activity that would get them either a black eye or a bullet in any other normal human encounter. They think that the laws of their God override the laws of man, to the degree that they basically harrass others, and often, they end up in court, where a judge has to actually explain to them the limits of free speech; the fact that there is a LINE between "witnessing" and "harrassment."

And then we have the totally mad. Those not only willing to die in the name of religion, but take others with them.

The extremists aren't just in the middle east. We have them right here in the USA; people like Jim Jones, David Koresh and Marshall Applewhite.

These people have lost all contact with what most would call "reality."

They exist in a "reality" of their own making. They are as far from holiness as can be.

Answer 3

Where are the Buddhist or the Jewish extremists?

Are Israelis considered extremists?

Can you even COMPARE Christian extremists to Muslim? If you tried with say,
a handful of abortion clinic bombings in the US in the name of Jesus,
it would be obvious that you have absolutely no clue what atrocities Islam inspires all over the world.

Answer 4

This is a very good question and could take a month of Sundays to answer yet, I will try. When one first turns their life over they are like babies. They are hungry to learn more like a baby needs milk. They also make mistakes as babies do until they learn more. Everything to them is either Good or Evil (black or white)...with no inbetweens. Once they get over that stage (and some never do because they don't want to grow up-like Peter Pan), they realize that we are not to judge others...just pray for them. God allows us to make mistakes so we will learn and grow from it...this can be painful. God will be the judge...not us. We are to encourage and allow the light to shine brightly within us so others will yearn for what we have.

Answer 5

Don't worry, buddy. I'm starting a religion where we do everything we feel like doing. We eat, drink and sleep who we want to. We tell religious children they have to be educated about homosexuality, and we're just 'free, free, free.

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

Answer 6

Actually atheists could be considered the most intolerant because they despise all religions, whereas an extremist despises all other religions (and atheists) except for their own.

Answer 7

Just wait till you start getting 'extremist atheism'

Answer 8

that is because there fairy tale tell them to be intollerant and thay can not think for them selves the church tells them how to think

Answer 9

Because religion is stupid.