Tip #43 Tragedies Part 3
Dec. 13th, 2015 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastWe just talked about what you do when someone who believes like you do does something horrible. The short of it is that you accept that they believed as you did. Now, let's talk about what happens when other people do horrible things.
This is the flip side of that coin. Just as Christians will go out of their way to say that Christians who do horrible things aren't really Christians, some will also say that non-Christians who do horrible things are the only true non-Christians. Matt Barber, for instance, has an article in which he says the following*.
Does it matter to Matt Barber that he can, at a quick Google search, find a list of Koran quotes that speak out against terrorism? No.
Similarly, I can barely go through a conversation with an evangelist or apologist without having Stalin presented as the only one who takes atheism to it's logical conclusion. And, the long list of kind and loving historical non-theists means nothing to those people.
The reason this is such a bad idea is similar to the reason why declaring all your own moral embarrassments to be "not really members" is a bad idea. Both show your faith to be less focused on the goodness of God than on your own tribal moral superiority to others and their moral inferiority.
I can already hear the response that "no, I don't think that. I would be just as bad without God as you surely are." To that, I can only say that self-hatred does not justify hatred of others. And, to those who's objection is milder, simply that they're not motivated by hatred or a sense of superiority, I will remind you of tip 15, Show Versus Tell.
Telling us you love us, then painting us with what is one step shy of blood libel, gives us the choice to make. Believe what you say or believe what you do.
* http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/christian-terrorists-dont-exist/#e5FbHL95irUczixQ.99
This is the flip side of that coin. Just as Christians will go out of their way to say that Christians who do horrible things aren't really Christians, some will also say that non-Christians who do horrible things are the only true non-Christians. Matt Barber, for instance, has an article in which he says the following*.
Terrorism is in direct disobedience to Christ.
It’s in direct obedience to Muhammad.
Does it matter to Matt Barber that he can, at a quick Google search, find a list of Koran quotes that speak out against terrorism? No.
Similarly, I can barely go through a conversation with an evangelist or apologist without having Stalin presented as the only one who takes atheism to it's logical conclusion. And, the long list of kind and loving historical non-theists means nothing to those people.
The reason this is such a bad idea is similar to the reason why declaring all your own moral embarrassments to be "not really members" is a bad idea. Both show your faith to be less focused on the goodness of God than on your own tribal moral superiority to others and their moral inferiority.
I can already hear the response that "no, I don't think that. I would be just as bad without God as you surely are." To that, I can only say that self-hatred does not justify hatred of others. And, to those who's objection is milder, simply that they're not motivated by hatred or a sense of superiority, I will remind you of tip 15, Show Versus Tell.
Telling us you love us, then painting us with what is one step shy of blood libel, gives us the choice to make. Believe what you say or believe what you do.
* http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/christian-terrorists-dont-exist/#e5FbHL95irUczixQ.99
