Responding to accusations from Christians that Secularism is humanity's primary cause of violence and injustice

 

I doubt your ability and your interest

in having a more nuanced and fair conversation.

⁠

But let's consider a direct and fully fair parallel
to your way of thinking here.

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Let's imagine a universe where:

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instead of a Sky Wizard being the dominant religious notion (or “theme”), ..

The King of the Leprechauns was the recurring theme for most popular religions.

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Let's say
their universe had the same history as ours, except for that one key difference.

⁠

So now, …

Here's a Leprechaun-ist, speaking from a semi-specific faction and sub-faction, as an American Abrahamic, Protestant, Evangelical Fundamentalist Leprechaunist (along with some unspecified further distinctions between his sub-faction and similar sub-factions)

⁠
As such, of course, he presumes to speak as a VOICE OF AUTHORITY …

on behalf of a billions-strong religious family … which doesn’t actually exist.

That common THEME of “honoring the King of the Leprechauns”
means literally nothing, since they can’t agree between them about ANY of the details
which DEFINE WHO that is, WHAT that is, or how “He” wants to be honored.

It’s just tens of thousands of rival religious gangs, and millions of disenfranchised independents …  competing for societal turf, on a global scale;
but POSING as a family (an especially innocent family) whenever a critic walks by.

So here’s this random religious zealot.
- a fundamentalist; which science says probably has physical brain damage; impeding his ability to reason and his ability to relate to humans in a healthy way.
https://www.salon.com/2019/01/08/a-link-between-brain-damage-and-religious-fundamentalism-has-now-been-established-by-scientists_partner/ Keeping this in mind, I really am trying to be patient with him. ---

He wants to paint the history and the modernity of the whole world ...

as one where:

Violence has only RARELY been done (or caused; even indirectly; even partially)  in the name of “The King of the Leprechauns'', nor by people who believe IN some version of the Lepre-King.

He thinks most violence and injustice in mankind’s entire recorded history, up through the present day ... has been done by “non-Lepre-King-ists”.  

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So he asks me ...

how I can just ignore all the wars committed in the name of 

A-Leprechaun-ISM;

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as if merely not believing in Leprechauns ... counts as a belief system, and a sociopolitical group,
… in the same way that:

***not collecting stamps***

is a hobby.

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So he cites examples of wars and atrocities ... led by people who just didn't happen to believe in any King of the Leprechauns ...

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pretending that:

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them NOT believing in any Supreme Leprechaun
had anything to do with the reason various people instigated various eras of violence or injustice.

He even overlooks how it was popular Lepra-King cults that TRAINED those violent dictators to think in violently dictating ways, when they were young.

He even overlooks how it was often still-active Lepre-King cultists
who supported those former-Lepre-King cultists,

when those non-cultists appealed to cultist Daddy Issues, to get them to support the violence. 

In his mind, no matter the REASONS anyone EVER instigated violence or injustice, …
If it wasn’t being done “in the name of the King of the Leprechauns”, then:

It was, by default, being done in the name of “not believing in any leprechauns”;

-even if the people doing it never even gave any thought or speech to the issue of leprechauns.

It’s automatically being done “in the name of not believing in leprechauns”, if the person doing it … doesn’t believe in leprechauns.

And if the violent people DO believe in some version of the Lepre-king?
And if they DO say they are doing it in his name?
Well, that just doesn’t count. They only “imagined” that was their real reason.

Of course, he also overlooks that:

Sometimes, those Non-Leprechaun-ists were trying to start a RIVAL RELIGION and wanted to eliminate the competition.
They understood that most Leprechaunists would sow dissent among populations, because they couldn't tolerate anyone ruling as an UNQUESTIONABLE AUTHORITY ... unless that was happening in the Lepra-King's name.

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⁠He also overlooks this:

that the morally-themed IDEALS that underpin ALL violent injustice … are the morally-themed ideals that were SPREAD and KEPT ALIVE … by cult followers of the Eternal King of the Leprechauns.

In his mind,
the larger religious cultural premise … isn’t responsible for the destruction caused by the ideals it spreads.

So if a FORMER associate of their cult

takes ideals he learned from THEM …

And then puts those into practice …

and thus causes the INEVITABLE RESULT of those violently unjust ideals,
via his own expression of their shared Totalitarian principals ….

Well, … that’s “really” the fault of non-Leprechaun-ism … as a fatal character disease.

And so he reasons …
this is why we should FEAR and DISTRUST, and seek the “peaceful” eradication of that horrible sin-disease (by stirring up hatred and distrust. And gleefully awaiting for the Lepre-king to come torture and kill them (not necessarily in that order) OR
To appoint his FAITHFUL to do that FOR HIM, if they can ever finally overthrow democracy and install an American Theocracy …
TO THEN eradicate them …
… for the crime of … Not-Believing-In-Any-Version-Of-The-King-Of-The-Leprechauns.
--

If only they had remained in the cult of the Eternal King of the Leprechauns, (really any of the rival factions) …
They would have remained “peaceful”; - even though none of the cult factions are actually peaceful, since: (in actuality) They are all based on the Totalitarian principle, and all use various forms of violence, and all promote unjust ideals, and all foster the prejudices that perpetuate injustice.
But that’s ok, as long as it’s done in the name of the eternal totalitarian King.
---
Swapping BACK to the term “God of Abraham”, but leaving all the other details the same …

You sure you want me to address that?

Starting at time index 2:32, right before someone who thinks like YOU … tried that same stunt, and then Harris shows how stupid the argument is:

https://youtu.be/gTWTyYqatbs?t=152


Also here:
When that same stunt is tried with Hitchens:

https://youtu.be/9HG0yH6Jtp0

Hitchens just skims the top of the violent hate-berg of Christianity.
You’ll love this, because he also mentioned how Christians started WWI (since you did ask me about that).

Although, he only makes passing references to the death-toll caused by Christian anti-Semitism, as they were both the principal cause AND support for the Holocaust;
- until secular values won out, and then a reluctant majority of Christians finally “saw the light”.
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https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/special-focus/dietrich-bonhoeffer/after-ten-years

“ Our realization (is) that the pervasive antisemitism and anti-Judaism in Christian circles helped foster the attitudes that culminated in the Holocaust…”


And, of course, we all know that the reason the Confederacy was so ANGRY about the North’s desire to liberate the slaves … is that bibles sanctioned OWNING other humans as property, as a “God-Given right”.

That’s why those same slaver-Christians founded the KKK
AND
Why they (the same people) founded the Southern Baptist Convention, as a political cover for their Christian premise of overt racism.

You should recognize the SBC. It’s the PARENT ORGANIZATION for all American protestant Evangelicals.
-which makes it the parent organization for your “totally not organized religion”.
-------- Final link:

MASS PSYCHOSIS - How an Entire Population Becomes MENTALLY ILL (and what we can do about it)