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Fri 8 May, 2015 07:46 am
What does the Inquisition mean here? The judgement of the doomsday (by Jesus Christ)?
Context:
Take the religion of Jainism as one example. The Jains preach a doctrine of utter non-violence. While the Jains believe many improbable things about the universe, they do not believe the sorts of things that lit the fires of the Inquisition. You probably think the Inquisition was a perversion of the "true" spirit of Christianity. Perhaps it was. The problem, however, is that the teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was
possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews,
and witches. You are, of course, free to interpret the Bible differently - though isn't it amazing that you have succeeded in discerning the true teachings of Christianity, while the most influential thinkers in the history of your faith failed? Of course, many Christians believe that a harmless person like Martin Luther King, Jr., is the best exemplar of their religion. But this
presents a serious problem, because the doctrine of Jainism is an objectively better guide for becoming like Martin Luther King, Jr., than the doctrine of Christianity is. While King undoubtedly considered himself a devout Christian, he acquired his commitment to nonviolence primarily from the writings of Mohandas K. Gandhi. In 1959, he even traveled to
India to learn the principles of nonviolent social protest directly from Gandhi's disciples.
@oristarA,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition
The Inquisitions were bloody events in the history of the Catholic Church in Europe. People were tortured and killed if they didn't profess to be Christians. The things they believed in were things in the Bible and things professed by their leading clergy/theologians. Pretty horrible stuff, that.
@FBM,
Yes, the Inquisition refers to this specific brutal period in history.
@FBM,
FBM wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition
The Inquisitions were bloody events in the history of the Catholic Church in Europe. People were tortured and killed if they didn't profess to be Christians. The things they believed in were things in the Bible and things professed by their leading clergy/theologians. Pretty horrible stuff, that.
Thanks.
So "that lit the fires of the Inquisition" refers to "that led to the Inquisition"?
@oristarA,
Yes, exactly that. It's a metaphor. Cheers.
@FBM,
there needs to be a good song about the Inquisitions