(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

Crossposting to challenging_god.

Is it fair to judge a religion on the basis of actions done by its followers? By this I mean of course weighing the good deeds as well as the bad ones. Or should this judgment be made simply on the basis of the teachings themselves?

Underlying this question is another one: to what extent is a religion defined by the people that make it up?

Comments

[beowulf1723.livejournal.com]

" Each individual person is responsible for their own actions, and each individual person is responsible for evaluating their religion."

Yes, but ...

"A religion is a collection of philosophies and beliefs, it cannot dictate how a person acts."

A religion can not only dictate the actions of a person, it usually does. This can range from what you eat (no meat for Hindus and Buddhists, no pork for Jews and Muslims) to who you associate with, what you can do in your private life -- i. e. sex -- and almost always backs up the ruling powers, with which it usually has a symbiotic relationship. (Not doing so can be hazardous to the survival of the religion.)

If there is scripture "revealed directly from God" then there is a problem getting around things that are no longer acceptable in the society. You either ignore them -- as Christians do with circumcision and the dietary laws, and, more recently, chattel slavery -- or legislate around it by claiming a parallel tradition (The Mishnah vs. the Torah in Judaism)or "deducing" new rulings from the revealed text. This usually creates a lot of heat, as the current debate over legalizing homosexual sex shows.

"I think saying that Christianity is reprehensible for the Crusades, or that any religion is reprehensible because it has zealots (and they all do) is a way of taking responsibility away from individuals, and a way of furthering religious intolerance."

True ,but again, the emphasis is on following the dictates of the religions authorities and their rulings -- at least if you want to remain a member of that community. Otherwise, you have to leave the religion -- if you can do so without repercussions in the society at large.

Religious intolerance often starts with the religion's authorities -- especially when they have to cover their ass about something embarassing that they've done or when the faithful begin to notice the emperor's lack of clothing.

" I have a problem with blanket statements about any religion, because too often we make them without familiarizing ourselves with the religion we are bashing (ex: Islam post 9/11)."

But if you are kept ignorant of the other fellow's religion, it is so much easier for the authorities to use blanket statements to manipulate you into supporting some damnfool crusade.