Why do we need to keep talking about religion?

[smoothmoniker]

Originally Posted by Riddil

Ok, fine. Inda sucks. We should declare another Holy War on India and liberate the Christians.

Yes, way to not overreact to my post. A war of liberation was exactly what I was suggesting.

Don't get your panties in a wad just because your peaceful example turned out to be a war zone. I suspect the same thing will be true of any nation you choose to use as an example.

The only exception are places where the dominant religion is a homogenized civil religion, that makes no actual claims about the nature of God. If you think tradition, ceremony, and exhortation to general good acts are the sum total of religion, then there is no reason why everyone can't get along. But, if you think religion makes real claims about the nature of God, claims that can be true or false, and that those claims have real significance in how we ought to live, then conflict about those ideas is inevitable.

It's kind of like communism - you're free to argue it on the merits, but you'll have to do so without the benefit of an example. It turns out to not be very compatible with how people actually are.

[Riddil]

Originally Posted by smoothmoniker

Yes, way to not overreact to my post.

My overreaction was intentional. I didn't want to waste time talking about India anymore. Even if the example was imperfect, I didn't think the example was core to the argument. I felt like if you were the chap sitting next to Forrest Gump on the bench and he told you, "life is like a box a chocolates...", that you would answer him, "You know, many brands of chocolate provide a product where a box will contain all of the same kind of chocolates. Others provide a clear 'map' to tell you exactly what you will get."

Yes. Very nice. But that's not the point.

But, what your last post sounds like is that you're arguing that it's enlightenment is impossible. There is no nirvana... everywhere in the world you will find either a homogeneous culture, or strife. So is your stance that we should just give up? We should either choose the path of ethnic cleansing, or just accept the fact that if we do choose a mixed society then holy wars and suicide bombers should be accepted as the norm?

...and speaking of India, it's not looking so peaceful today.

No lie. :-/