Why Do Atheists Criticize People's Beliefs?
May 24, 2017 at 12:01 pm
(This post was last modified: May 24, 2017 at 12:09 pm by Valyza1.)
(May 24, 2017 at 12:24 am)The Valkyrie Wrote:(May 24, 2017 at 12:06 am)Valyza1 Wrote: Not sure what safety has to do with any of this, and I'm not talking about rights. I agree that ridicule is your right. Anyone has a right to ridicule anything they don't understand. It doesn't mean it's the best way to approach it, nor does it mean I'm undermining that right by pointing that out.
Christians have a saying, "Love the sinner, hate the sin".
Personally I apply that to religion, "Love the person, unless they're a prick, liar, or moron, hate the belief."
So basically, "love the person, unless they're a human being, hate the belief". I think the effectiveness of that Christian saying is in the judgement of intent, because intent is the theologically significant part of sin. The only intent an individual can hope to adjudicate properly is one's own ("remove the beam from your own eye"). The only trustworthy example of a "sinner" is oneself. I think the most effective use of ridicule is on oneself first.
[edit]More to the point, Christianity identifies ALL humans as sinners, so to apply the same philosophy of hating sin to ridiculing baseless beliefs means one first must ridicule one's own baseless beliefs.
