Open discussion of the Christian Why We're Here thread

[I_am_not_mafia]

Wow, big letters. The fact that you say demeaning, nasty generalizations about theists (like that entire thread you made) and then drag Neo through the mud when he generalizes shows that you are completely oblivious and lack self awareness yourself.

I said that I was aware of the potential for that thread to be offensive multiple times now. I also explained how I reached a threshold with Neo's threads where I no longer gave a crap. Ignore it if you wish, I'm not going to keep repeating myself with you.

You mention referring to religiosity as a mental illness as being offensive. I'd like to remind you that christianity has been doing this for many, many years now. Homosexuality has only relatively recently been declassified as a mental illness. Gender dysphoria has been treated as such even more recently. There have been many cases where women in the past who were not content to live the domestic lives laid out for them by a religiously indoctrinated society used to be sent off to asylums where many underwent lobotomies. Not to mention the current abuse still being carried out by the Catholic church protecting pedophiles who then are free to abuse more children, taking children away from women to be adopted, and the religious right in America deliberately causing more deaths of women with their anti-abortionist stance. This is the America that religious Trump supporters yearn for and are fighting to bring back. The religious right still promote the idea of homosexuality and transsexuality as a mental illness. Neo has started multiple threads pushing this very agenda.

You and the other christians have talked about being representatives of christianity on this forum. Well that comes with historical baggage. In the same way that when complaining about the poor service of a company I know that the person I am talking to is not the one solely responsible. Yet they are still there as a representative of their employers. So if you come here representing christianity then you should expect to have a backlash from both the historical and current abuses carried out in its name. Because as a professed christian you are saying that you not only agree with these abuses but financially support the institutions  responsible for them. That means you are partly responsible for the ones being carried out today.

You live in America. A semi- quasi- theocracy by all accounts, so you are speaking from a position of privilege as a theist in such a society. As such the idea of religiosity as a mental illness seems absurd. After all, it does not make sense for the majority in a society to be suffering the same mental illness. But what if someone told you that they had a personal relationship with the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and could actually sense his presence and their prayers were answered by him? Don't tell me that you wouldn't wonder about their mental stability. I live in the United Kingdom where such extreme religiosity is now thankfully a rarity. Regular church-going christians are a minority and fast becoming rarer. So telling someone here that you have a personal relationship with Jesus here is similar to saying the same about Quetzalcoatl.

It has since been shown that homosexuals will lead normal, fulfilled lives as much as anyone else if they are not subject to the levels of bigotry that they used to be. The same with transsexuals, and science has since shown that they were correct in what they were telling psychiatrists and that it was not a delusion. Yet there is absolutely no solid evidence for a god that defies all known laws of physics and which cannot be measured in lab conditions. So while you may personally find it offensive, it is absolutely valid to point out the similarities between religiosity and mental illness. At the very least it's worthwhile to discuss whether being able to sense something that by all means is not there is a form of delusion considering what we know about confirmation biases, cognitive dissonance, conditioning etc

But here you and other christians are complaining about being offended and wanting the privilege you're used to extended to this forum while at the same time talking about being representatives of your religion. Then complain when people do see you as such a representative. I see now what Whateverist means about hypocrisy. Neo especially deserves to be dragged through the mud on this forum for actively promoting the bigotry that has led to his religion's abuses in the past. You don't come out of it clean yourself.