Unique ID In India Causes 'Fear of the Beast'

bhagwad writes "India's attempts to tag everyone with an ID number has run into a roadblock is some Christian villages. Apparently the villagers fear they will be associated with the devil since according to the Bible, everyone having the 'mark of the beast' will go to hell. These people are not afraid of punishment. They relish this opportunity to prove their faith because the Bible also proclaims that they will be persecuted."

Comments

Blah

[religious freak]

Always good to see uneducated crazies are all over the world. I was worried that it was just the USA. Phew! /sarcasm

Re:Blah

[ragefan]

>>>Always good to see uneducated crazies are all over the world.

Always good to see people who are intolerant of Christians. If you can be tolerant of gays, and tolerant of people speaking ideas you disagree with, why can't you be tolerant of Muslims, Jews, and Christians too? They have as much right to "pursue happiness" as anybody else, even if you disagree with their religious philosophy.

Maybe it's because gays just want to enjoy the same rights that you enjoy; whereas Muslims, Jews and Christians want to remove the rights they feel disagree with their beliefs.

Their right to "pursue happiness" stops when they try to impinges on the rights to pursue happiness by others.

Re:Blah

[Creedo]

Why would I be tolerant of someone who does not repay the favor? The gays aren't knocking at my door, telling my children that they are going to burn in hell forever. They aren't shooting abortion doctors. They aren't launching suicide attacks on my neighborhood. They aren't polluting science with their fictional delusions. When the theists abandon their irrational bigotry, grow up and stop trying to control their neighbors, they'll be worthy of tolerance.

Re:Blah

[Draek]

You assume the GP has it. He doesn't, for instance, if the person he loves is a minor, an octopi or his own sister.

And before you reply "but that'd be disgusting!" be aware that the same can be (and has been) said of homosexuality as well.

Good!

[Just Some Guy]

I really don't care what arbitrary reason they picked. I'm just glad to hear of someone - anyone - standing up and saying that they refuse to be tagged like cattle. Good for you, Indians!

Re:Good!

[corbettw]

These are Christians in India, not Hindus. There's a difference: one believes a magical zombie died so they can live forever but that if they don't follow the zombie's teachings very closely, they'll burn in a lake of fire forever; the other one thinks the stupidest creature on four legs (and also one of the tastiest) is a magical creature that we should all aspire to become in a future life, but in the meantime we should give rats milk and bath in the most polluted river in the world so that when we die we can finally be happy...until we get reborn into a new body and have to be unhappy again.

Bah, bunch of nutters, the lot of them. Why anyone bothers with religion is a mystery to me.

Uneducated

[Anonymous Coward]

If you meant that it takes years of indoctrination before a normal human being is willing to let other human beings tag him like an animal, then yes, I suppose these people need more "educating".

They may be wrong about WHY consolidated power is dangerous, but they are absolutely correct that it IS dangerous.

Re:Uneducated

[JAZ]

And regardless of who wrote these religious texts (divine inspiration, folk story, philosophers or old fashioned kooks), it is really interesting that someone as acknowledged and feared the idea of someone taking authority over and tagging the population for literally thousands of years.

Re:Uneducated

[IICV]

Just FYI, the guy who wrote that was most likely on some Middle Ages equivalent of LSD. It's a single throwaway line in a book full of random shit; the fact that what he said just barely manages to be relevant right now is more coincidence than anything else.

If you throw enough shit at a wall, at least some of it will stick. That doesn't mean it's glue.

Re:Uneducated

[lgw]

It wasn't intented to be a fantasy trip, but an obvious metaphor for people and governments around in the time of the author, warning of things he expected to happen in his lifetime *and many of them did). Of course, if you make your prophesy obscure enough, it will keep matching random events, but the intended timeframe for the predictions is long past.

The only reason is seems mysterious is that almost no one understands the referents. If I made an allusion to "the Beast of Redmond" it would be obvious to many /. readers, but it would seem very odd 1000 years from now.

enjoy the show

[roman_mir]

I am just sitting back, enjoying the show: religion versus state, no matter who loses, I win.

Re:Educated, not crazy and not afraid.

[Creedo]

Funny. Where I live(the US Midwest, FYI), the Christians are at the forefront of attacking human rights, demanding that non-believers kowtow to their deranged fantasies and attacking science when they aren't flailing about in fear of the devil driven liberal conspiracy. That's not what I would call being a good citizen.

Re:Educated, not crazy and not afraid.

[pluther]

Personally I think Christians (practicing their faith in "loving others") are the best kind of citizen one can have. They follow the just laws, they pay taxes and help their fellow men.

Except that they don't. At least, no more than anybody else. Possibly less, actually.

In the US, Christians are about 80% of the population, but over 90% of convicted criminals.

And churches pay no taxes. Those who give money to churches get tax breaks for doing so. Assuming Christians also give to actual charities as much as everybody else does, that would mean they actually pay less taxes.

As for the "Mark of the Beast", we've had this in the US for a very long time now. Every citizen of the U.S. is given a unique ID number at birth. A number which you need in order to get a passport, or drivers license, or credit card. So we're already regulating the buying and selling of property without it. And have been since before most of us here were born.

Re:Educated, not crazy and not afraid.

[Creedo]

Tell it to the Christians. Or is this yet another stab at the "No True Scotsman" fallacy?

Re:Educated, not crazy and not afraid.

[hedwards]

It's inherently so. Ever notice how the Fundamentalists try to reshape the face of their religion so that they can conveniently decry those that disagree with them for not being true believers? The problem is that while a lot of these views are genuinely minority views, since the rest of the religious devotees let it pass without comment, since those other ones aren't true believers, you end up in a situation where it just stews and nobody knows what's up.

WOW

[copponex]

Personally I think Christians (practicing their faith in "loving others") are the best kind of citizen one can have. They follow the just laws, they pay taxes and help their fellow men.

History class: apparently you never showed up. Ever.

Re:Educated, not crazy and not afraid.

[clarkkent09]

If the Christians were more like Christ, there wouldn't be any Christians around anymore:

But I [Christ] tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.

Re:Educated, not crazy and not afraid.

[JAZ]

more like a noisy and obnoxious minority of a community.

...All christians are assholes who try to make everyone conform to they're way of life.
...All muslims are terrorists.
...All jews are stingy.
...All mexicans are illegal immigrants.
...All blacks are in gangs.
...All canadians are nice.
...All slashdot users are nerds who can't find girlfriends.

anytime you try to associate a trait with a group you're probably oversimplifying the truth.