(July 6, 2012 at 11:15 am)goddamnit Wrote: If you are not a hiring manager, pretend you are one. Two applicants try for the same position. You believe one is an atheist and the other is a Christian. How might you arrive at the belief? Well, this example is an imagined situation, so I will leave that up to your imagination. (Maybe your firm's cameras saw a Darwin bumper sticker on one candidate's vehicle and a Jesus fish on the other when they came for interviews?)
Before knowing about the religion of these candidates, they seem equally likely to offer what you are seeking. But, as it turns out, this is a job that requires logic and critical thinking, and you now know that one is an atheist and the other is a Christian. If you have a personal preference to work with an atheist or religious person, leave that factor out of the decision. Would your awareness that one applicant is an atheist and the other is a Christian, tip the scale and lead you to select the atheist?
If your answer is "yes," then do you accept that religious discrimination is ok?
If your answer is "no," are you sure you did not fall for a societal trap by treating religious discrimination as if it is racial discrimination?
It isn't religious descrimination if I were to select the atheitic applicant over the Christian applicant. If both are equally competant to perform the task at hand, it wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings if you made whatever arbitrary choice you felt like.
The best thing to do is actually toss a coin, or draw from a hat, or something of the sort. I wouldn't care if one was religious and the other wasn't; if the religious applicant turned out to be an asshole, I would fire him and hire the atheist, and vice versa.
Though I don't condone descrimination in any facet of society, I feel I might have a harder time choosing the Christian for the group they stand for.
It would be subconscious, I'm sure, but I have had too many encounters with bigoted, stubborn, unintelligent, True Christians™ and as such would certainly be swayed towards the atheist.
Just being honest.
My conclusion is that there is no reason to believe any of the dogmas of traditional theology and, further, that there is no reason to wish that they were true.
Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.
-Bertrand Russell
Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.
-Bertrand Russell
