Imagine no hatred

[Moksha]

Imagine if religious hatred were a thing of the past. Being introspective, do you think it would change your life? What about everyone else's lives?

[pushka]

I would like to think that it would change everyone's life to a degree, and would hope that they wouldn't substitute something else to fall out about instead!

[Traveler]

I wonder - if our faith is not tested - will we be as strong?

The Traveler

[FrankJL]

I wonder - if our faith is not tested - will we be as strong?

The Traveler

Thats a rather interesting perspective..

[Iggy]

Our faith can be and is tested in other ways besides religous hatred.

Imagine if religious hatred were a thing of the past. Being introspective, do you think it would change your life? What about everyone else's lives?

To answer you Moksha- if there was no religous hatred it would not change my life- because there is no religous hatred in my life now. I can not answer for any other than myself either.

[Elphaba]

I suspect men and women would realize they do not need religion to be kind, decent, and fair-minded human beings.

I also suspect mankind would respect life more, as we would realize this time on earth is all there is, and therefore we need to make the most of it while we are here. We must not squander it away on religious wars, believing absurdities such as it is all right if innocents are obliterated because they are now with God.

We would realize that if innocents are obliterated a horrific tragedy has occurred. Human lives, precious beyond measure, have been killed before their time, and there is no greater loss.

The pure essence of love which exists in mankind, regardless of religion, would begin to manifest itself, and those for whom collateral damage is purely a statistic, would soon find themselves sick with dread and unbearable horror, coming to terms with the reality of what they have done--blithely killing human being thinking they were nothing more than a number.

I believe men and women would love each other in a way they've never had to before, as a psychological evolution of great strides occurs.

I am not naive enough to think this will happen overnight or that there wouldn't be many problems, violence, conflicts and confusion along the way. But I do believe in the long run, if human beings were forced to grow up and realize they need to rely on themselves, and more importantly, that they have the capacity to rely on themselves, the goodness they are capable of will replace the need for religion. I see this as a very evolved, mature, state of being.

Being an atheist, I can’t say how this would affect those who would still believe in a god. But I can speculate, and I do believe the lack of religious hatred would make their religious activities and beliefs would become more peaceful, hopeful and content.

However, I suspect people would realize much of what they attribute to God is, in fact, within their own power to bring about positive results. Nevertheless, this would not preclude anyone from worshipping the god they so choose.

Elphaba

[Mahonri]

Someday, religious hatred will be a thing of the past.

Someday soon, Christ will come to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords...

But all hell is going to break loose before then.

Folks aren't going to begin to choose the right until they are humbled by the sermons that Our God will soon begin to speak.

The economy is soon going to tank in a major way. Have you got your wheat stored? It will soon be worth more than gold.

Nephi had to pray for a famine to come upon the land before the people would pay attention, pray and repent.

[a-train]

Within Mormon circles, it is more subtle than it was with the Nazis in the holocaust. It is the prideful who sit in Sunday School and imagine we are spiritually superior in our understanding and in our scripture study. It is the feeling of superiority we have when we think with pride about our knowledge of the restoration among those who disbelieve it.

It is the feeling we have that Mormons are the most honest among our fellow citizens. We will even vote blindly for a Mormon running in an election against a more honest and prepared candidate of a different faith.

It is easy to recognize the religious hatred and intolerance in the hearts and actions of those who aim it at us. But it is an unwelcome notion that it exists within us.

If we wish to remedy the disease of religious intolerance, we must first remove the beam from our own eye.

-a-train

[Moksha]

Religious hatred is certainly not conducive to a good working relationship between groups and individuals. It has been the source of wars and individual strife. It would seem that this hatred can be bred of both familiarity and unfamiliarity. Either way it is dysfunctional.

[USNationalist]

My first thought was along the line of what Travler pointed out. But I guess it would depend on to what extent "hatred" is routed out. If the only testing of faith comes from ourselves and person struggles, I think it could still lead to a point where hate for others is generated. For instance, someone becoming defensive and hateful against the church for exercising church discipline.

But then also i guess if hatred is gone it will have an effect on free will. And that kind of ruins the whole life game.