The practise of religion

Posted: April 1, 2006 - 6:22pm

I've seen this several times, but I'm not sure of its origin.

(quote)You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. (end quote)

Two questions:1) (minor) Can someone tell me the origin, so I can attribute it properly?

2) the big one: Despite the "Golden Rule" or "Second Great Commandment", this comment is arguably descriptive of many (most?) "religious" groups. Why are so many religious people so much in need of something to attack/hate? More particularly, why are they so likely to attack their own, when someone within the group indicates any hint that the "others" may have something right or lovable about them?

I'm thinking in light of the immigration debate that is going on at the moment, but it is obviously a much larger issue than that (Read RLP's obituary of Foy Valentine, for instance)
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(1) Quote is from Anne
Submitted by Satchel Pooch on April 2, 2006 - 8:54pm.

(1) Quote is from Anne Lamott, possibly from "Traveling Mercies" or perhaps one of her essays on salon.com.

(2) Of course I don't know the answer, but people's need to divide people into Us and Them seems to be hardwired. Doing otherwise is very, very hard, and most of us can't manage or sustain it even if we want to -- and most people don't want to.

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