(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

[akaiyume.livejournal.com]

I would tend to judge a religion more on the tenets, beliefs, and rules that the hierarchy, or whoever defines the ideals of the religion, set rather than on the actions of the individual followers. I would have to say that I have encountered both enlightened kind individuals and out right bastards from many different religions. The choices and actions of an individual are the sole responsibility of that individual, even if it means standing for something other than what the leaders of your religion tell you to.

I do have to admit that sometimes in conversation it is too easy to generalize and just overlook this fact, however.

Many people above have been listing the crimes of Chrisitianity and specifically Catholicism. I feel it is necessary to point out that these religions have always been tightly interwoven with the government. In fact, it is only a recent development that the people have been fed the line and even try to pretend that church and state are separate. The Crusades and slavery were political and social question just as much if not more than religious questions in their day. Thus the Church and State backed each other. I feel today, the same thing is happening with questions of homosexuality, polyamory, pornography, and and recreational drug use. The more traditional churches tend to side with the state and the state in turn usese it as justification. When enough people become enlightened, it will no longer be a political or religious issue -- the most recent examples being that until recently the Catholic church would not allow inter-racial marriage on supposed "religious" grounds until it became largely a non-issue, due to INDIVIDUALS, many of them followers of the church, taking a stand.