From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Fri Dec 24 1999 - 13:38:20 MST
Friday, December 24, 1999 6:31 AM Greg Burch GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
> As religious people go, the Bahai I've encountered have seemed pretty
> reasonable. I find their strong stands against bigotry admirable.
I've met Christians, Buddhists, and Jews who appear rational and seem to be
nice people. And probably they are. I've even met tolerate types of the
Muslim faith.
Even so, it seems to be a pattern of history that when a particular faith,
creed, or ideology is in the minority, especially underground, its followers
tend to be tolerant. However, when that faith, creed, or ideology becomes
mainstream, it generally its followers tend to become less tolerant -- even
oppressive. I offer up Christianity as an example of this. I also offer up
Buddhism (as in Sri Lanka) and Islam (as in anywhere) as more examples of
this.
Now this does not mean that these belief systems are inherently
intolerant -- though I do not know how one would otherwise judge them on
this dimension.:) Nor should it concluded that the Bahai faith will do
likewise -- though almost every religion winds up doing the same thing.
(I.e., I don't expect the pattern to change. Deists mixed Christianity with
a more scientific worldview. How many are left today?)
Salutations!
Daniel Ust
See my updates at:
http://mars.superlink.net/neptune/
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