1: Christians do not believe in a "patriarchal warrior god." For one, God has no gender. Secondly, Jesus has been known to say that a person with a sword will die by the sword. While it is possible to twist any religion and anyone's words to suit one's views, most Christians are not violent, they do not like war. You'll find some who do, but, as I just said, words can be twisted and the Buddha is no exception.m0rl0ck wrote:In my view the point needs to be addressed in this thread that to practice buddhism you need not believe in a judgmental god whose main historical use seems to have been dehumanizing enemies so that they could be killed and their land and property taken.
Its no accident that the followers of the patriarchal warrior god are so numerous, the ones who sat around saying "all religions are the same, they are good people too", likely got dehumanized by the priests of the warrior god cult the next valley over and killed for their arable land.
All religions are not the same and bad ideas kill people. Whenever religious groups attain political power, slaughter usually follows. Look at the world today, representatives of two of the worlds major religions (the US is arguably a christian power) both believers in apocalypse and the patriarchal warrior god and his "final judgement" are involved in conflict that could very likely take the rest of the planet down with them.
If you seriously believe that all religions are equal and that religions cant kill en masse, you need to take a look at your attitudes, education and especially at history.
I know its not pc to say so, but some ideas are contagious and deadly mental disorders. Theism is one of those ideas.
EDIT: Just for clarity sake, when i say theism above, what i meant was patriarchal monotheism. Matriarchal theism seems to have gotten the short end of the stick from the patriarchal variety historically. Seems to be making a comeback tho, which looks like a positive development to me.
I expect this post will likely be deleted as was my last in this thread, but at least i tried
2: With about a fifth not identifying themselves with any religion and the constitution separating state and religion it is indeed very arguable that USA is a Christian power.
3: "I know its not pc to say so, but some ideas are contagious and deadly mental disorders. Theism is one of those ideas."
No, it is more than that: it is rude, offensive and incorrect. While it is not enough, in my opinion, to be removed as you predict, I am not sure Buddha would be on your side here (or anyone, really)
4:Why are you using the word matriarchal as a positive? How is gender relevant?