RE: A Simple Rule
December 31, 2014 at 7:43 pm
(This post was last modified: December 31, 2014 at 7:44 pm by DeistPaladin.)
(December 31, 2014 at 6:43 pm)abaris Wrote: It's to give you an impression, how indiscriminately painting all people of a certain group with the same brush, regardless if they're a race a religion, cyclists or people wearing glasses, can ultimately lead to outbursts of violence against innocent people. So try my little experiment. Bigotry doesn't stop at race.
It does stop with ideology. To use your Nazi example, I'm not a bigot if I oppose Nazism. Is Islam that dangerous? I don't know. I'd like to have that frank discussion without it being preemptively silenced.
Why does Salmon Rushdie have to hide? Why does Ayaan Hirsi Ali need bodyguards? Why was Theo Van Gogh murdered? Why is it that if you criticize Islam, you're taking your life into your own hands?
Have you ever been to a majority Muslim country? I have. Indonesia is a supposedly "moderate" Muslim country. And you watch what you say when you're in public unless you have a death wish.
Atheists who live in small towns in America hide their non-belief as well but not out of fear of their lives but rather out of fear of social consequences. Perhaps they'd lose their livelihood or they might lose their friends. I've even heard of stories of harassment that atheists have received in small town America. I've not heard of any in fear of their lives.
Now 500 years ago, atheists would have been killed for being atheists. Christianity has managed to more-or-less peacefully integrate with civilization. Can Islam be reformed in a similar way? I don't know but I'd like to have that discussion without being silenced.
What I don't buy, which is what this thread is about, is the flippant "oh, that's just the radicals" excuse.
The radicals in any religion ARE the religion. Show me the radicals and I'll show you the religion in its purest form.
At least that's my conclusion so far. Maybe I'm wrong. Show me.
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
