Apostasy

This article from the Times Online (thanks toGene Expression for the link) got me thinking about apostasy, while the wheels of one of my queries grinds exceedingly slow.

He and his family have been regularly jostled, abused, attacked, shouted at to move out of the area, and given death threats in the street. His wife has been held hostage inside their home for two hours by a mob. His car, walls and windows have been daubed in graffiti: “Christian bastard”.

I mean, the man is not just an unbeliever. He’s actually had the gall to drop one set of fairy-tale beliefs in favour of another, competing, set. Sam Harris, in his (I found) excellent book The End of Faith, which I’ve recently finished reading, mentions the fact that the death sentence is mandatory for an Islamic apostate, and is in fact frequently carried out. Obviously, one can’t have people running around saying that, although God certainly exists, your version of Who He Is is wrong. It makes one look something of a fool, not to mention undermines the Holy Power One Holds, in His Name. The Quran specifically commands its believers to put to death the apostate.

Lest we forget, and think that Islam is the Great Mother of Bloodthirsty religions, let’s see what the Holy Bible of the Christians has to say on the subject

Dt.13:6 "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die."

2 Chr.15:13 "Whosoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman."

Old Testament.OK, we know they were pretty bloody in those days. But since Jesus came, we ‘re all sweetness and light. Err..

Mk.16:16 "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."

(quotes courtesy of The Skeptics’ Annotated Bible) And we all know what happens to the damned, don’t we? Sorry, I’m eating breakfast, I can’t go on in this vein.But you get the picture. The thing is, and Sam Harris underlines this nicely, that even moderate, tolerant theistic beliefs are dangerous to humanity.
The sweetness and light liberal Christian or Muslim gives credence to the beliefs of the radical, or to put it more honestly, the truer believer,

I’ve seen atheists sneer down their noses at ex-atheists who turned to religion-and I’ve sneered, myself.But do we go after them with flambeaux and pitchforks, put out fatwas on them or kill their children for turning from the One True Way? The difference here is that we’re not obeying the dictates of the Omnipotent Creator of the Universe, which He just happens to have left written down for us in this really old book.

That means we can kill you.