It's my own experiences with fundamentalist religious dogma in the UK that led me to search out this forum in the first place. It feels to me as if religion has simply diversified, despite the official stats showing an overall decline. Nevertheless sucessive waves of immigration have introduced more religions and more (dare I say it) daft ideas which are being presented as fact, sometimes pushed in an even stronger way than it has been by my 'traditional British' christian peers. I mentioned in my intro thread that I had a few heated discussions with work colleagues about topics such as creationism and sexism, and I was quite shocked to witness how intense and passionate some of this dogmatic bollocks was spewn out. These events are probably more limited to the major urban centers (such as London where I was living and working until summer) where massive religious communities are able to thrive and feed one another's retarded viewpoints. I used to be a very tolerant person, and I still swing way to the left in terms of politics, and I still believe it's important for people to be allowed to hold really demented opinions. It's just incredibly soul destroying when you are forced to work with "scientists" who think that humans used to be 20 metres tall and that god wants women to wear bedsheets for the benefit of sexually frustrated men, especially when i'm constantly patronised and have to put up with this garbage being passed off as obvious truth, DURING WORK HOURS. Complaints would open up sucessive cans of worms, and would probably have me branded as a bigot, even though I'm far more dedicated to equal rights than these prejudiced pillocks.
The worst part of it all is that children are being indoctrinated with this bigoted horse shit from a young age, and are told that it is all unquestionable fact. It's very hard for most people to shake off these cultural signifiers when it's the only thing they've ever known, which is how we end up with doctors and scientists who believe profoundly unscientific things. I'm basically past the point of respecting or tolerating this element to diversity now. I respect people's right to hold opinions but that doesn't mean that I have to respect that actual content of the specific opinions. That's basically me saying that it's ok to be a homophobe or a sexist or to condone slavery. All these subjectivities can't coexist. You can't be completely liberal AND believe that certain dogmatic viewpoints are immoral. You can't have your cake and eat it, essentially.
I only hope that the official trend continues and that we end up like Estonia in which religion just doesn't play a significant role in cultural life any more.
The worst part of it all is that children are being indoctrinated with this bigoted horse shit from a young age, and are told that it is all unquestionable fact. It's very hard for most people to shake off these cultural signifiers when it's the only thing they've ever known, which is how we end up with doctors and scientists who believe profoundly unscientific things. I'm basically past the point of respecting or tolerating this element to diversity now. I respect people's right to hold opinions but that doesn't mean that I have to respect that actual content of the specific opinions. That's basically me saying that it's ok to be a homophobe or a sexist or to condone slavery. All these subjectivities can't coexist. You can't be completely liberal AND believe that certain dogmatic viewpoints are immoral. You can't have your cake and eat it, essentially.
I only hope that the official trend continues and that we end up like Estonia in which religion just doesn't play a significant role in cultural life any more.
