This is why they vary so much according to time, culture & individual. We can end up arguing abt completely different things.
-
-
-
Present a Christian with a genocidal, mad, child-murdering, slavery endorsing, misogynist homophobe & ask how they can worship it?They don't
-
They've recreated him & don't know what you're talking abt. OK, this can take a lot of rationalising & not reading the bible but that's easy
-
You simply can't assume that they actually endorse a monster & are evil. Most westerners get this coz they live among them.
-
V different with Muslims in the west. Two extremes. 1) Assuming Muslims don't cherry-pick & sanitise & actually represent the worst of Islam
-
2)Assuming they all do & in the most tolerant & peaceful way possible (or Islam simply is that) because to do otherwise would be racist.
-
I used to be far too literal but I did know Christians weren't evil. The cherry-picking frustrated me.
-
I still think there's far more justification for 'you contribute to an abusive system by existing' accusation 4 religion than race or gender
-
Holding good men responsible for 'male privilege' seems less just than holding good Christians responsible for religious privilege.
-
And, of course, there's also the fact that religious privilege demonstrably exists. But collective blame doesn't really work even then.
-
Even when religion is a choice, people are choosing different things coz so subjective. So we have to judge individuals and their actions.
-
(I have someone now presenting the worst medieval war-lord aspects of Muhammad & insisting this represents core values of all Muslims)
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
In order to correct bad behavior of religious origin you need to challenge the reliability of the texts themselves.
-
Sometimes, yes.
-
Without freedom of textual criticism of the holy books religions stagnate and become reactionary.
-
Of course we must be free to do this but want to avoid legitimising relig by taking on its own terms &neglecting the psychological
-
I'm not really concerned about deep personal meanings of religion, I'm concerned with acceptance of criticism of behavior.
-
Very important, yes. I'd like to reduce religion. Part of that is reaching out to people who are receptive to critical thinking 1
-
and already inclined to question & know what's true. Another is looking at what religion gives ppl & finding other ways to supply.
-
Separate but connected to that is asserting the right to criticise all ideas, challenge religious privilege & normalise non-belief
- 1 more reply
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.