And group? I have to write a short paper on Allport's theories about religiosity causing prejudice in people, and I wanted people to bounce their ideas off my brain.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allport%27s_Scale

So what do you think and why? Thanks!

From the Wikipedia page you linked "Antilocution occurs when an in-group freely purports negative images of an out-group."

The first thing that comes to mind is how the church portrays people who leave (i.e. The dreaded "apostate"). The narrative is that if someone leaves it must be because they have sinned, they are weak, they have been offended, they are lazy, etc.

It never occurs to TBMs that many people leave because they have studied their way out. They are leaving because what they've discovered. They are leaving when they realize how much they've been lied to and betrayed.

TBMs like to think they are the smart ones and those of us who have left have been deceived by Satan.

Back to your question about prejudice, religion seems to cultivate an environment where learning what other people are really like is discouraged, even forbidden (i.e. the temple recommend question about whether you sympathize with apostates), because the truth about outsiders might be a threat. It is threatening to TBMs that people who leave may be well-read and highly educated. What does that say about the people who are still there?

It is far more comforting to believe that the people who left our adulterers, people with porn addictions, fornicators, alcoholics, etc.

CORRECTION:
"are" adulterers, not "our"

Silly Apple dictation.

What immediately comes to mind are the somewhat anti-jewish passages of the new testament. Also, a bit less spelled out but still there, is a prejudice that many early jewish christians seemed to have had against sharing a meal with non-jewish christians.

In the old testament you have lots of prejudice against various ethnicities surrounding Israel, you have Ezra and Nehemia preaching against marrying foreigners and the Book of Ruth elevates a moabitess, one of the particularly despised ethnicities, into the grandmother of King David.

In testament both new and old you have the samaritans, which basically are descendants to the few isrealites the assyrians didn't bother to deport and the various foreigners the assyrians transplanted there and thus they became distrusted both because of their mixed ethnic heritage and their rival claim as god's chosen people.

In later times religion has been a major factor in differentiating people. So you have former yugoslavia where serbs, croats and bosnians basically all speak the same language and are basically all related with each other, what really marks them off as three separate groups is religion. Serbs are orthodox, croats are catholic and bosnians are muslim. Flemish and Dutch are the same phenomenon. Basically the same language and ethnicity is divided in two along religious lines that largely aren't even really there anymore. The dutch got big on Kalvin in the 16th century while the flemish stayed catholic.

brefots Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What immediately comes to mind are the somewhat
> anti-jewish passages of the new testament.

Agreed. To which I'd add the very anti-anything-but-jewish old testament.

Which pretty much makes the point the OP was asking about -- that out-group hatred and denigration is encouraged by and taken as "gospel" by religions, and the people who make them up.

Surely, current problems in the Middle East would qualify as an exampleof antilocution to the extreme, as would the recent spate of bombings and the horrors of 9/11? Closer to home, and on a personal level, the prejudice of Mormons towards 'outsiders'. I was heartbroken for my daughter, who was just beginning the second grade when we moved to Utah in 1993, as she was consistently excluded from birthday party invites from her classmates. So.... I would say yes, most definitely.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2016 01:02PM by cinda.

I think English is somewhat mystical, with deep cosmic truth somehow embedded in the language.

Look at the word believe. Belief, belie. To believe is to be a lie. After all, if you believe something you are precluded from believing its opposite. Belief pushes people apart. It drives them outward rather than inward, so they form groups of strangers that are inwardly as far apart from each other as they are from outsiders.

I am equating the word 'religion' with a group who holds the common belief that their way of knowing and honoring God or Gods is the best way, the right way. All other religions are not on par with theirs which sits at the top rung. How can this not create prejudice as judgement rules here. Sure, you can claim that you follow the Golden Rule, but this is not what is followed. Only people in your group can and will be treated equal with you.

I dunno, how could a constant preaching that those who differ
with you in belief are deserving of eternal torture create bias
and prejudice?

I know you want to focus on religion, but there is a step beyond, when the State co-opts religious prejudice for it's own ends. In the "see also" section of your wiki we find this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide#Stages_of_genocide.2C_influences_leading_to_genocide.2C_and_efforts_to_prevent_it

The American Religion is hovering frighteningly between stages six and seven. Yet, most people I know are dismissive, believing they are watching a TV Reality show. This scares me, for the reality is, we are de facto in Alport's stage three and increasingly stage four speech AND acts are taking place.

So it goes...and goes...

Human, alas

I'd love to see a paper on Alport's scale in relation to the Charlie Hebdo event.

Teju Cole responds to the latest Hebdo editorial, unmasking themselves in English, putting to rest the "it's satire and you don't get it" pose.

https://m.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10153616146902199&id=200401352198

I think that historically religion has taught the "Us and Them"

concept to gain power and riches from those deemed inferior .

For example, objectifying blacks and bringing them to America

to be used as slaves. Objectifying and demeaning Native Americans

in order to gain their land, their gold and use them as slaves

in some instances. Demeaning Jews in order to gain their land,

via Pograms, Mass murder, etc. Racism has become

institutionalized throughout history. It was Religion that

originated it and it continues to this day.