Need an example? Imagine the early 1200's, the Church is very very powerful and Pope Innocent III reins (apparently reluctantly over all of europe), except he has a little trouble with the heretic 'Albigenses' (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01267e.htm) known to some as the 'kathos' I believe. The kathos live in Southern France and after they murder someone important to the Pope, he resorts to force in true religous style.
However, the French catholics in one particular part of france, side with the Kathos in an unprecedented move and they all shelter together in the church of Mary Magdeleine. Pope Innocent III, a magnificent ruler of The Holy Land, as described by the catholic encyclopedia, when questioned on how they should seperate the catholics from the heretic 'kathos' the Pope replied:
"Kill them all, God is all powerfull and knowing,
he will know which are catholic and which are heretic,
which should go to heaven amd which should go to hell."
unfortunately the Catholic encyclopedia doesn't go into this in great detail, but it does comment briefly on it about 3/4's of the way down its biography on Pope Innocent III at: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08013a.htm
2 comments:
Demelza said...
Just for the hell of wading into a religious debate....
I don't think it is belief in god that is dangerous, it is a fanatical belief in anything that causes people to act in ways that they might not otherwise do. And with religion it seems to be a fairly selfish focus because it's either about power (ie the dude who decided to kill everyone one so god could decide). really if he wasn't into havin power of life & death & was instead about belief in an almighty allseeing being then wouldn't he of instead had faith that his god could "change" or enlighten the non-believers. The death thing is all bout power, it's not about faith or belief...um oops bit of rant there.
Hey Fuller, it's me; Mike. After our chat an hour ago about the nature of "right and wrong," i had to check out your site. I was about to say exactly what demelza has just said, but i see i don't have to. So, just for the record, I agree with her 100%. After all, remember what Professor Elliot said the other day about this same subject? You have to be consistent about your judgments; you need to ask yourself, "Is killing people a necessary part of believing in God? Do i have to kill people in order to believe in God, or is it possible that ANYONE can kill people, regardless of religion?" As I mentioned in class that day, agreeing with the professor, "Politics are not necessarily DANGEROUS, even though there have been tens of millions of people whose murders have been politically motivated (ie. Nazi Germany, Communist Russia)." After all, Lenin also believed that the belief in God can be a dangerous thing... He killed more people than Pope Innocent III.
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