James naively suggests that the Jews invented intolerance, but this is not an issue of religion or secularism, it is an issue of power and control.
There are long shopping lists of barbarism committed by Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, plus the unparalleled crimes against humanity carried out by atheist anti-religionists such as Stalin and Pol Pot. Nevertheless, let's be honest here: it isn't just the "intolerant" monotheistic religions of the West that are guilty of such behavior. Now I (and countless other Jewish bloggers) have written on some of the disturbing aspects of Torah law, not to mention genocidal atrocities such as those committed by the Israelites against the Canaanites ( although these may never have actually occurred.)
(Sample quote: " believed in, and sometimes worshipped, the gods Baal, Asherah, Anat, and many others."). If you are interested in reading his own novel take on early foundational Judaism, check out this excerpt. James' more extensive writings on the "Intolerance Meme" can be found in his book, The Religion Virus. Indeed, James' brief biography shows that he has been greatly influenced by Richard " The Root of All Evil" Dawkins. The Intolerance Meme justifies all sorts of atrocities in Yahweh's name: Murder, slavery, forced conversion, suppression and destruction of other religions, racism, and many other immoral acts.Oh, man, I thought, yet another radical atheist with an axe to grind against religion. The Intolerance Meme declares that not only is Yahweh the only god, but in addition, anyone who worships other gods is committing a sin. James states:ĭiego de Landa's one-man inquisition perfectly illustrates the power of the Intolerance Meme, an idea that evolved in the Jewish religion a few centuries before the birth of Jesus, and was taken up with a vengeance by Christians in the third and fourth centuries AD. Interesting article here on how a Catholic priest, Diego de Landa, single-handedly destroyed the written language of the Mayans.