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originally posted by: ChaoticOrder
a reply to: Rocker2013
Well I prefer not to frame things as "left and right" because quite honestly I do lean to the right and if I lived in the US I would vote for someone like Rand Paul or a libertarian such as Gary Johnson. The point I'm making here has more to do with religious beliefs rather than political beliefs. I think it's important to show why all religions, and not just religions like Islam, lead to unwarranted hatred and violence around the world. People just need to think for themselves more often, and rely less on advice from thousands of years ago.
Christian Identity ("CI") is not an organized religion, but is instead composed of individuals, churches and some prison gangs[5] with a white supremacist theology[6][7] that promotes a racial interpretation of Christianity. Christian Identity beliefs were primarily developed and promoted by two authors who considered Europeans to be the chosen people and Jews to be the cursed offspring of the "serpent hybrid" (in Dual Seedline Christian Identity) Cain. An early Christian Identity teacher, Wesley Swift, formulated the doctrine that non-Caucasian peoples have no souls and therefore can never earn God's favor or be saved.[8][9] The sect was promoted by George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party.
No single document expresses the Christian Identity belief system and there is much disagreement over the doctrines being taught by those ascribing to CI beliefs since there is no central organization or headquarters for the CI sect. But all CI adherents believe that Adam and his offspring were exclusively White and that the other races are separate species, which cannot be equated with or derived from the Adamites.[10] CI adherents cite passages from the Old Testament, including Ezra 9:2,12 and Nehemiah 13:27, which they claim contain injunctions by Yahweh against interracial marriages. Christian Identity believers reject the doctrines of most contemporary Christian denominations[11] and believe the teaching that God's promises to Israel (through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) has been expanded to create a spiritual people of "Israel", i.e., the Christian Church, is heresy.[12]
Anthony Bradley of the Christian Post interprets that the language of "economic parity" and references to "mal-distribution" as nothing more than channeling the views of Karl Marx. He believes James Cone and Cornel West have worked to incorporate Marxist thought into the Black church, forming an ethical framework predicated on a system of oppressor class versus a victim much like Marxism.[18]
Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago is the church most frequently cited by press accounts, and by Cone as the best example of a church formally founded on the vision of Black liberation theology.[9] The 2008 Jeremiah Wright controversy, over alleged racism and anti-Americanism in Wright's sermons and statements, caused then-Senator Barack Obama to distance himself from his former pastor.[9][19]
Stanley Kurtz of the National Review wrote about the perceived differences with 'conventional American Christianity'. He quoted Black-liberation theologian Dr. Obery M. Hendricks Jr.: "According to Hendricks, 'many good church-going folk have been deluded into behaving like modern-day Pharisees and Sadducees when they think they're really being good Christians.' Unwittingly, Hendricks says, these apparent Christians have actually become 'like the false prophets of Ba'al.'" Kurtz also quotes the Rev. Jeremiah Wright: "How do I tell my children about the African Jesus who is not the guy they see in the picture of the blond-haired, blue-eyed guy in their Bible or the figment of white supremacists [sic] imagination that they see in Mel Gibson's movies?"[20]
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which relatively unskilled persons suffer illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability to be much higher than it really is. Dunning and Kruger attributed this bias to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their own ineptitude and evaluate their own ability accurately. Their research also suggests corollaries: highly skilled individuals may underestimate their relative competence and may erroneously assume that tasks which are easy for them are also easy for others.[1]
originally posted by: ChaoticOrder
But I've noticed that over the last few years the voice of the non-believers and the realists is starting to get drowned out by the Christian group and other religious groups.
originally posted by: RainbowPhoenix
I have noticed that this site seems to be (at least these days) overwhelmingly conservative and ripe with religious fanatics. I also find it interesting if not purely coincidental that it seems as if these right wing conservative types constitute the majority of membership here. What I'm afraid of is that sharing both the belief in a mystical sky fairy and having a conspiratol mindset may both be symptoms of extreme gullibility. If you think about it though it kind of makes sense that it would be people that still hold on to antiquated religious doctrine that are also paranoid and think that everything is a conspiracy and shadows are out to get them, I mean the devil is outside waiting. I don't know but I may have to hang up my CT hat soon because I don't want to be lumped in with those loonies.
originally posted by: ketsuko
originally posted by: RainbowPhoenix
I have noticed that this site seems to be (at least these days) overwhelmingly conservative and ripe with religious fanatics. I also find it interesting if not purely coincidental that it seems as if these right wing conservative types constitute the majority of membership here. What I'm afraid of is that sharing both the belief in a mystical sky fairy and having a conspiratol mindset may both be symptoms of extreme gullibility. If you think about it though it kind of makes sense that it would be people that still hold on to antiquated religious doctrine that are also paranoid and think that everything is a conspiracy and shadows are out to get them, I mean the devil is outside waiting. I don't know but I may have to hang up my CT hat soon because I don't want to be lumped in with those loonies.
So you would prefer an echo chamber?
Having people of different viewpoints means that people will disagree.
originally posted by: DISRAELI
originally posted by: ChaoticOrder
But I've noticed that over the last few years the voice of the non-believers and the realists is starting to get drowned out by the Christian group and other religious groups.
This surprises me, as an assessment of ATS. From my experience of the site, the Christian group does not seem large enough to do any drowning. Those who hate religion seem to be holding their own well enough.
I discover, further down the post, that your real issue is with the on-site popularity of Trump. That's a different question, you know. Some of us religious folk are not even American.
People just need to think for themselves more often, and rely less on advice from thousands of years ago.