Where do you guys get this from, neither are describing how societies form and function. The concepts you compare don't relate. e.g. the poor are neither deserving nor undeserving - other factors are in play. Religion does not determine egalitarianism - other factors are in play. Etc.CJK1990 wrote:Actually I believe in reciprocity. The people respect property and provide income to the rich and in exchange the rich respects people's rights.Attrition wrote:Ah, you believe in the undeserving poor rather than the parasitic rich. That's protestantism not chris.
I also used to think that Christianity was about helping the poor and that Protestantism was a gross distortion of it. But actually that really isn't true. Medieval Islam was far more "egalitarian" than medieval Catholicism. And we all know how that turned out.
You do realize, though, that your view is a conspiracy theory, right? All over the world at some point in history people who were armed to the teeth settled down and submitted themselves to a state of their own free will. We're they all just bamboozled by an elite conspiracy?I think that you're wrong about the role of the state, it's just a glorified mugging device, hence my disdain for the fools, frauds, pinps and perverts who compete to control it rather than flush it down the u-bend of history.
As to any religion, it is the construct of man, not God - God has never talk to any man; God has never told anyone to kill anything is His name. And there is absolutely no empirical evidence to remotely suggest that He has. But people believe He has. And worst still people act in that believe. And worst still people convince and manipulate others to act in the belief that God wants them to kill.
And to give it a forum twist (before we get nuked) the irony of ironies is that all belligerents in WW1 and WW2 were supported by their religion 'to kill the other guy'.
As with all things construed by man, religion can be used for good or for evil, and is used for good and evil.
A pox on all religions and isms I say .
I'm a nontheist with a simple pray; God save and protect me from all zealots.