I would like to raise a point to other religious people like myself:
Whether you're buddhist, muslim, odinist, christian, jewish, sikh, etc, I think we all can agree that religion it itself is a very good and beautiful thing. It served as a cornerstone of human civilization for millennium, was the inspiration for some of the world's greatest wonders and marvels of engineering, art, and architecture...The Pyramids were inspired by the egyptian belief in the afterlife, The Sistine Chapel and The Great Mosque of Djenne are other examples of architecture fueled and built by faith. Not only that, it has furthered the human pursuit of science by a great amount (for those who bring up the dark ages and say they were the catholic church's fault, I'd like to point to the islamic golden age going on at the same time).
But one of the greatest tragedies in the universe is that for every meal we serve to a beggar, for every person we save from suicide, for every act of kindness brought about by our respective faiths it is not payed attention to in favor of the rogue acts of extremists and people exploiting the faith for their own gain.
This is why I think the word "heretic" (or it's equivelents in other religions) should be taken more seriously today. Don't get me wrong, there is a good reason for it's lack of usage because of it's overuse and disastrous consequences in some of the inter-faith and inter-denominational squabbles, earning many innocent people death...but that should not be the meaning of the word.
So what is a heretic? Today, I would argue, is someone who deliberately exploits the faith of a large number of people (whether they truly believe in their false beliefs or are just using the religion's name for "marketing power") for hateful and immoral purposes, while simultaneously ignoring the faith's basic principles and teaching's of it's leaders.
For examples, I would like to point out The Westboro Baptist church and ISIS: Two hate groups fueled by heresy. Both of these groups, I think we can all agree, are doing very immoral things in the eyes of the majority of people in that religion and are rampant extremists that practice little of their actual faiths they claim to uphold.
Christ taught us about tolerance, almsgiving, and respect (especially for the dead). These are NOT things the westboro baptists church does. Muhammed (despite having to fight every now and then), taught similar principles that ISIS DOES NOT follow. I'm not entirely sure if the leaders of both groups really believe what they are preaching; rather, I have a suspicion that they are lying and using the religion's appeal to further their own agendas.
But that doesn't matter; whether they don't believe it or are deluded into thinking that is truly what the religion is about, they are still modern day heretics. Now, what do we do with these heretics? "BURN THEM AT THE STAKE?!" I hear the militant atheists cry...
No. We ignore them, until they cross the line of violence. The westboro baptists church has (to my knowledge) not caused any acts of assaults or murders for their message, so they should be ignored when possible and told "that's a croc of shit" when they can't. Groups like ISIS or White Supremacist Odinism that promotes murder, however, needs to be dealt with through military and police action.
So, NSG, what is your opinion on this and your thoughts on how the word "Heresy" and it's equivalents in other religions applies to fringe groups nowadays?
I believe that's the truth,warping the words to suit their own goals.
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