Looking for a good quote about religion and intolerance

[johncmcleod]

I want to start my paper with a quote that describes all of the racism, intolerance, and warfare that is in the name of religion. Or maybe I could get a quote from some fundamentalist saying something like: "All non-[insert religion here] are going to burn in hell! They are inferior to us!" Anyway, from there I will write that this happens when people believe their religion is better than the others, but if we all believed that religions are different but equal paths to the same summit we wouldn't have these problems. Then I will say that this would seem impossible, for religions contradict each other and their beliefs are mutually exclusive, but when the descriptions of the higher reality are compared, mystics of all the religions describe It very similarly. And, mystics of all the different religions have similar beliefs, even about the essence of the higher reality. My thesis is: Spiritual experiences lead mystics to be pantheistic in nature.

So might anyone have a quote that would fit?

[Urban Ranger]

Try "religious right hate speech" on Google.

[Bosh]

Enjoy:

http://www.math.unl.edu/~augustyn/godisdead.html

[Ben Kenobi]

My thesis is: Spiritual experiences lead mystics to be pantheistic in nature.

Then why are you going about that roundabout way to prove your thesis?

Your thesis, says nothing about how one religion is intolerant of another, but about the similarities between the two in the mystical aspects.

A much more constructive and insightful essay affirms and highlights these similarities, which I think contribute far more than the usual irreligious tropes. While that may garner a better mark, a good prof would appreciate your more radical approach.

To prove your thesis you need to have a representative sample of various mystical traditions from a variety of religions. This means, yes you need to consider both the Charismatics, who can be both fundamentalist and more mainstream. There are Catholics who are charismatic, just as much as there are Pentecostals, alongside all the others.

Then you have to assert the similarities across all these approaches. I don't see why you need a quote that says these folks are heathens and these folks are not, therefore they should be wiped off the face of the earth.

[Ben Kenobi]

Secondly, pantheistic is the wrong word. Pantheism means a very specific doctrine that God is found in everything, trees, whatever, and is directly opposed to most of the religions you will be looking at, particularly the Christians and Muslims.

A better thesis would be that all the religions draw from the same source, in their mystical aspects.

[molly bloom]

Re: Looking for a good quote about religion and intolerance

Originally posted by johncmcleod


So might anyone have a quote that would fit?

One size fits all:

Arnaud Amaury, Abbot of Citeaux & Papal Legate, July 22nd, 1209

"Kill them all, for God knoweth them that are His. "

("Tuez-les tous; Dieu reconnaitra les siens.")

: when asked by the French crusaders what to do with the citizens of Beziers who were a mixture of Catholics and Cathars.

Henry C. Lea: 'The Inquisition of the Middle Ages'.

(also Helen Ellerbe, 'The Dark Side of Christian History')

[Combat Ingrid]

How about this site:
http://www.godhatesfags.com/main/swe..._monument.html

[Whaleboy]

Read "Why I am not a Christian" by Bertrand Russell (get the edition with other essays, many of which also focus on the topic).