Give me, O Caesar! give me the earth purged of heretics, and I will give you in exchange the kingdom of heaven. Exterminate with me the heretics, and with you I will exterminate the Persians.
May those who divide Christ be divided with the sword, may they be hewn in pieces, may they be burned alive!
E. Gibbon in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Postscript: Please see Ark’s comment below for details.
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Evidently a pure psychopath.
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Well, these were the church fathers. They are responsible for what people believe now and I don’t think the believers agree with you
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Keep the words, but change the name to Abdul and you have the modern muslim jihadi.
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And that is how to create a peaceful religion 😛
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A telling quote Noel. I also agree with John with regard to Jihadi tendencies. Here’s a study done at a Canadian university, where the population is not that religious compared to America, IMO.
I Would Kill in God’s Name:
“The study is part of a larger research effort in the neurological bases of religious experience, including religious personalities, religious conversions, and now, extreme religious views.
It was done by administering a set of questionnaires to 1480 university students that asked about a wide range of religious beliefs, habits and behaviors. It also asked about how often the subjects had more common, ‘altered state’ experiences, like deja vu, the sense of a presence, electric-like sensations, and many others. Taken together, these latter experiences (complex partial epileptic signs) give a measure of a person’s “Limbic Lability”.
The statistical analysis involved taking each questionnaire that included a ‘yes’ response to an item that asked if they would be willing to kill for God.
All the questionnaires that included a ‘yes’ to this were examined to see what other items emerged in association with a willingness to kill in ‘His’ name.
Four factors emerged:
1) Having had a religious experience.
2) Weekly church attendance (religious orthodoxy).
3) Being Male.
4) Limbic lability (which will be explained).
The next step was to look at all the questionnaires that showed all four traits, creating a second group.
44% of this second group stated that they would kill another person if God told them to.
The study was based on university students, and if generalizable, then one out of 20 Canadian university students would be willing to kill another person if they were to attribute the instruction to God.”
Role of Sex, Weekly Church Attendance, Report of Religious Experience, and Limbic Lability” M.A. Persinger, Perceptual And Motor Skills, 1997, 85, 128-130 l
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Limbic lability, aka, temporal lobe lability, refers to a person’s sensitivity to altered states of consciousness. Not the dramatic ones, such as religious visions. They are more subtle such as phenomena like like deja vu, ‘sensing a presence’, pins and needles sensations, fleeting visions during twilight sleep, and other common episodes. Studies show that this occurs in continuum across the human population, with some be more sensitive and other never having them.
Source: Neurobiology of Religious Terrorism
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In order to base a society on a religion, you have to make that religion compulsory. That can only be done with violence since it is not possible to prove the truth of the religion. So this is the logical outcome. Religion that claims to possess absolute truth necessarily leads to violence.
A problem with purging the world of heretics (from the purger’s point of view) is that new ones can spring up any time. People come with creativity and reason and these virtues can result in new heresy any time. So creative and reasonable people are highly dangerous to such religions. As a result, the religious rulers have to keep the level of education low. Don’t send girls to school at all and send men only to shools. Keep everybody stupid. Keep artistic creativity under tight control (results in kitsch or absence of art). Keep philosopical/sientific reasoning under tight control (results in dogmatism and absence of science). On the long term, however, this will not work since it will weaken the whole society so such societies are bound to stagnate (many examples from more distant as well as contemporary history).
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To grow the numbers of the religious, you must keep the masses stupid and inflame their passions.
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I may be wrong here, but that seemed just a BIT violent if you ask me. The tempers on some of these religious folks are just so…. unruly! Know what I mean?
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Violent it was. I don’t think they had thought of live and let live and maybe they also must have felt that the situation of the heretic was bad in hell, there should be no problem with starting the torments slightly earlier
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All this from a belief system based on the words: “The greatest commandment of all is to love one another.” A perfect example of the power of a faith. Excellent selection, my friend! 🙂 Now, time for me to consider what group I need to go out and slaughter! LOL!
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Don’t get killed in the slaughtering process, getting pope ambassadors ain’t an easy job.
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With the Pope Mak I on my side, who can harm me? LOL! Much love and naked hugs, O Supreme Sanctifier! 🙂
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Mak, if I may be so bold?
When I first read the quote and saw Gibbon’s name I wondered if some folk who had not read him might think it was Gibbon who said these words!
I dug this out so’s it can be seen in context for any who did not realise that Edward Gibbon is quoting rather than speaking.
http://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/volume2/chap47.htm
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Ark, I apologise for my misleading referencing and thanks for adding the details.
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Lol…don’t apologize to me , remember I have read the book!
Just, glad I could help out.
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Apologist 1: OUT OF CONTEXT!!!!
Apologist 2: NO TRUE CHRISTIAN!!!
Apologist 3: You’re deluded. I’ll pray for you.
Apologist 4: la la la… i’m not listening to you. 😉
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Apologist 2 will have to tell us who a true christian is
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Unfortunately, every apologist you’ll talk to considers themselves a member of that special group.
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That makes this challenge entirely very difficult to resolve
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The heathens are nothing but empty husks – the chaff must be burned for the glory of god! 😦
But seriously, this is why many Christians don’t care about human rights, because they feel the suffering they cause others is part of god’s divine plan (i.e.blowing up abortion clinics, passing laws to criminalize homosexuality, raising children to be ignorant of science, etc.). To them, we are less than human, unless we repent and join their club.
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I agree with you here. Their reasoning must be you are damned anyway why treat you better here and now?
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A long time ago I walked among them. I attended church at a few times during my life. While this is not how they tend to act publicly, you can bet your ass this is the theme followed amongst themselves in private.
If you don’t subscribe to their beliefs, you are less than human. If you subscribe to their beliefs in general, but belong to a different sect, you are still wrong and destined for the abyss, not to be pitied. If you convert from another sect to theirs, praise jebus!
Damn my critical eye, I could have been one of them! Knowing what I do, I am happy it didn’t take.
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I’m glad it didn’t take – and bless your critical eye!
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🙂
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