"We despise all reverences and all the objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our own list of sacred things. And yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy to us."
Why? Because they're wrong. I mean, if you think Christianity is wrong and Islam is right (excuse me...I have to punish my fingers for typing that. Ok, I slammed my hand in a door, and now I'm back.) then you'd be a Muslim instead of a Christian, right? Nobody adheres to a religion they think is wrong, excerpt Al Gore, but he's hardly normal.
Do I hate Muslims because they worship a fictitious god and revere a false prophet above Christ? Absolutely not. It's kind of sad, but it doesn't anger me. God can fight His own battles.
It's kind of like something said by a radio guy to whom I listen, Mancow. He was talking about how Dennis Rodman went over to North Korea and cozied up to the latest whack job dictator over there. Many are outraged. But the Cow said, "Look, I know Dennis Rodman. The fact is, he's dumb. Really. He's as dumb as a box of rocks. And just as you expect children to do childish things, you can expect dumb people to be dumb and not be angry about it."
So it is with Muslims. You look at how Islam started, all the way back to Abraham, and you can see how they are the way they are. You look at the severely diminished IQ, a full standard deviation lower than the norm, in areas where Islam is prominent, and then the scenes of them cutting themselves makes more sense. I know Twain used "despise" in a different sense, not of personal hatred, yet, perhaps due to his humanism/atheism, he didn't take into account that it's entirely normal for a man to consider his religion right, it wouldn't be his religion.
"So much blood has been shed by the Church because of an omission from the Gospel: "Ye shall be indifferent as to what your neighbor's religion is." Not merely tolerant of it, but indifferent to it. Divinity is claimed for many religions; but no religion is great enough or divine enough to add that new law to its code."
"Go to Heaven for the climate, go to Hell for the company."
That's not entirely true. False household gods were only condemned in ancient Israel (after they settled in the Promised Land, iirc) if their adherents proselytized.
And what Twain speaks of an omission is merely his addition. God is a jealous God.
