This may seem a stereotype, but why is it that all racists are that way because of some religious belief? Why is it that beneath the white sheets of the South, one will find Baptists and Evangelicals? Or behind the swastikas, a belief in the occult? Or behind jihads, fundamentalistic Islam? Does religion have an "acceptable" dark side?
While I tend to agree with that analysis, I also recognize that we are both non-religious. I was hoping one of the lurking theists would come out of the shadows and offer something from their point of view.
The "Us agin Them" is quite common in more primative, more regimented, less educated societies, but then, race doesn't often enter into the equation. They'll fight and kill each other just because they aren't of the same tribe.
With education, however, it seems that racism is abandoned by the non-believers, yet still held firmly (though hopefully, less firmly than before) by those exercise religiosity.
Before we paint with too broad a brush, I recall virulent anti-semitic views held by many amoung the upper crust in the northeast. This group wasn't fundementally religous.
# posted by Anonymous : 9:56 PM, November 29, 2005