I understand where you said they are more tolerant than other people as they go to heaven too but you twisted the words heavily as well.

Intolerance != dislike.

Tolerance is the ability to allow others to practice their beliefs. Nowhere did Oh_Man say that he forces anyone to stop practicing their beliefs, or that he wants others to stop practicing their beliefs.

In that case, there aren't many intolerant 'Christians' around. Maybe Westboro Baptist?

No matter what denomination of Christian you are, you are supposed to love others and treat them just as you want to be treated. If anyone didn't believe that, I probably wouldn't think they were a Christian, seeing as that's practically the only thing you're supposed to do.

Really most christian groups believe the same basic things. The difference is usually just in how traditions are carried out. I've been in a few different churches and the message is the same: "Jesus Saves"

It seems like theres just a lot of uneducated people in the world, Especially when it comes to religion.The only times I can think of us saying anything related to Christianity it was bad stereotypical stuff like "The Crucible"

@K_a great words to live by, i agree that no matter what kind of religion your in we can all be nice to each other. Unless of course your religion requires you to bomb usa (allah >:O)

This is the entire basis of my religion. Everything else is irrelevant.

what religion is that?

Everyone has their own personal religion made up of their interpretations and beliefs, though I happen to be a member of a lutheran church.

Most religions have that golden rule, which essentially governs what a "sin" is. If you don't want it done to you, and you do it to someone else, it's a sin. Nobody wants to be bombed, so bombing abortion clinics is wrong as well. The people who do that in the name of religion are skewing their logic to bypass the rule, much like how "I, Robot"s robots sidestepped Isaac Asimov's rules. I suppose it's also something like a "greater good" excuse. This is a common theme in human behavior, and it's exactly what religion isn't supposed to be, but some people are driven to manipulate religion to excuse their behavior.

This sort of behavior is actually one major reason religions are criticized.

No, the term religious intolerance is different from the word intolerance in terms of meaning, this is known as the fallacy of equivocation.

When I am saying religious intolerance I mean religion X holds a view, usually as part of their creed, that states that unless you are in THEIR religion you are not getting into Heaven. They want every other religion gone and their religion blanketing the entire world. This is what is known as religious intolerance. I'm not saying that every Christian sect has that creed, but a large number of them do, the majority, even.

Catholicism, the largest sect out of all the Christian sects, does not hold this creed. They concede that you do not have to be in their religion to get into Heaven, they just argue that you have a better chance with them. They also actively promote religious tolerance, go google papacy religious tolerance, or vatican religious tolerance. I'm not sure about the current Pope but the previous one campaigned for it a lot.

So that's the difference when I'm saying religious intolerance, and you try to take the word 'intolerance' out of that and then apply it in a way that I didn't attend it to be applied. Hence why it is the fallacy of equivocation.

Well you should of stated that you don't have to be in religion x to go to heaven in the first place which would of stopped the flame war.

Tolerance is pretty much just letting other people do what they want even if you disagree with it. For the most part, God tolerates people. He allows you to do whatever you want even if it directly contradicts what he says you should do.

I think tolerance is different than going to heaven. i.e. I tolerate the fact that there are atheists, but that doesn't necesarily mean they are all going to heaven. This saddens me. If everyone went to heaven regardless, I would have no reason to try to convince you to follow my own personal beliefs.

In reality, you don't need to be in religion X to get to heaven. My belief is that all you have to do is ask God for forgiveness. That's literally it. No rituals, no sacrifices, you can go do whatever you want afterwards (which doesn't mean you should). Religion is pretty much meaningless.

i don't believe in heaven, but if it was real i don't find it fitting that someone who was nicer than another guy went to heaven just because he was in religion x.

Yes I agree with you. And that is why if it turns out such a being did exist I would not worship it. It would be no different to sucking up to a dictator who was going to kill you unless you obeyed, except the punishment would be eternal. Either way, it is worship out of fear.

Come to think of it, I am hard pressed to think of anything that is deserving of worship. I admire good deeds and congratulate impressive achievements but there's nothing that I can think of that would really necessitate my daily worship of it. Just the word 'worship' brings to mind the cult of personalities surrounding people such as Kim Jong Il, Stalin, and Hitler. It just screams of dictatorship and tyranny.

I do like the idea of a universe or a God even that needs the human species to save it. How cool would it be if the universe going to heat death was something it couldn't stop but created us so we could save it. That is a cool concept.

Well worship is a endogenous word, does worship imply a consensual love of something or can it be forced.

Can you please explain how worship is endogenous I do not understand.

It would seem to me that of course worship is consensual. People could still do it out of fear however. With the tyrants, it was fear of execution, or torture, or the execution/torture of loved ones. With the Judeo-Christian God, I think it would be fear of going to Hell.

You could do the outward actions of worship out of fear, but it isn't the outward actions that count. If you are truly inwardly worshipping, that's what counts. Think of it this way: if you live in a muslim country you will outwardly go along with whatever the government says out of fear of reprisals, but what you actually believe inside can be totally different. In the same way, what you actually believe inside is what is truly you, as it were.

I don't have any fear of going to hell ;o that's half the point of being a christian. I worship out of thankfulness to God.

If I ask you to doubt or ask you to change or throw away your beliefs does your fear of hell factor into your decision?

I know many Christians who DO fear hell because they aren't sure if they have sinned too much.

Not really.

Then they're doing it wrong. Christianity isn't a religion of fear.

Heaven and hell are here on Earth.