Lactose-intolerant

29 Apr 2016

I ran across this article, today: After 13 Years, I’m Leaving Christianity. It’s an interesting read. As the title implies, the author, Keay Nigel, discusses why she left Christianity. While many thoughts ran through my mind as I read it, I’ve chosen to comment on an analogy she made. Here’s the context:

For instance, my church had taught us that our God is the one true God, and that all other religions are works of Satan. Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism were described as unintelligent religions; their worship of pagan figures, animals and deities were said to be wrong, nonsensical, useless, and laughable even. The pastor had in fact described miracles in other religions as demonic.

It’s scary that young minds were indoctrinated with such disrespecting, bigoted extreme ideas.

Here’s the analogy:

Just because you’re lactose-intolerant doesn’t mean others shouldn’t be allowed to drink milk.

And my question:

But what if everyone were lactose-intolerant? Wouldn’t it be a good thing if they were told not to drink the milk? What if people were sick because they were lactose-intolerant, but didn’t realize it was the milk causing it? What if I told them that they had to stop drinking milk in order to get better; it’s the only way!

Would I still be a bigot?

Tagged: bigots tolerance truth