Religious vs disability accommodations

[Razzle]

Religion is arbitrary, it's made up. It's not based on reality. Sure, people really may believe stuff. But there are literally no limits if you allow religious "accommodation". There are parts of any job people don't like doing, and I can make up any shit I want in order to not have to do that part of the job. The problem with "belief" is that it cannot be easily proven. And it can be easily faked.

Everything you say here applies equally well to beliefs caused by mental illness. They can't be proved and many examples are as bizarre or more bizarre than religious beliefs, e.g. the magical thinking obsessions I mentioned. Many people suffering from magical thinking will have weeks at a time that they can't touch certain objects, make certain motions, or say certain words, because a thought like 'what if it makes a plane crash?' or 'what if it makes my children die?' comes into their mind and doesn't stop "feeling" real until it's replaced by another magical thinking fear. There are also common OCD obsessions that would by chance get a person out of doing something that most people dislike somewhat, e.g. cleaning toilets. Does this mean we should make an exception in the law so that reasonable accommodations don't have to be made for such obsessions, in case people fake having them?

This is very unlikely to happen in my opinion because most people don't want others to think they have such an embarrassing and misunderstood mental illness, especially their employers and colleagues, and similarly most people won't want to have to try to keep up a lie about belonging to a religion with such strange, unheard of rules as 'must not go near public toilets'. It would be far easier to convince employers and courts that you couldn't go near them due to mental illness than it would be to convince them that it was a religious belief, so if the justification for disallowing the accommodation is fear of people faking it, then reasonable accommodations for mental illness (and back pain and migraines, also easily faked) would have to cease for the same reason.

I think it should work the same way to an extent; the religious person should admit, up front, what problems they are going to have with the job. It's then up to the interviewers to decide if they can still reasonably do that job. What I don't think is that the employers should have to work around anything the person says about their religion regardless. That is just stupid. If it's too much of a barrier, or it's going to be unfair to other staff or to customers, then too bad.

That's already the case. 'Reasonable accommodations' have to be reasonable, whatever they are for. An airline doesn't have to hire partially sighted pilots and take out extra insurance to cover the inevitable crashes.

I can walk into a job and say, "Hey my religion says I can only actually work for 1 second of every hour I'm employed. But you still have to employ me or else it's discrimination." This is no less stupid than arbitrary objections to touching pork or whatever. My arbitrary restrictions mean I can't do the job, that's the reality.

That's also the case for disability accommodations. Some disabled people don't have the energy to work full time. Businesses don't have to hire them if they need full time staff only. Again it seems you're overlooking the word 'reasonable' in these laws.

I think I would describe religion as a disability people inflict on themselves.

So you think religious belief is a choice? Have you ever had a religious belief? I know I am just one person but it certainly was not for me.