I wrote a long reply in another thread and I felt it deserves its own thread. I’ve amended it here to be a general comment.
There is a theme currently accepted by many that religions are all equally bad and that it is somehow bigoted to think of some as being worse than others. I think that this notion arises from this flawed belief that was given as the explanation for why we should ignore the differences between religious texts.
“Religions are the people who claim them”
The fundamental flaw here is the conflation of people and religion. There is a desire to treat all religions the same.. in the way that we treat all people the same. As equals. It is a desire to grant religions equality so as to head off bigotry against the believers of those religions. While a laudable goal the truth is that ideologies, whether religious or secular vary. They are to be judged on their content not their mere existence.
This conflation error gives rise to the problem of granting religion a special privilege that we don’t grant to secular ideologies. This has been the cause of religion getting a free pass for far too long.
It is in fact very important to make sure to separate people from ideology and not to lump them together in this careless fashion. For example, while it is OK to hold a belief that communism, and capitalism and fascism etc. are different from one another and to even conclude that one is better/worse, some want religious ideologies (which can be every bit as different from one another) to be treated as equals, the same way we treat people as equals. This puts religious ideologies on an unassailable pedestal.
It is also very important for anyone to understand that criticism of a religion and its sacred beliefs is NOT a blanket condemnation of all adherents. For example, while it is OK to criticize and condemn communism, it is not OK to conduct communist witch hunts. You can even be friends with communists while viewing communism as a big mistake. Same thing applies to Islam and Muslims for example. It is absolutely bigoted to lump them all together and treat them as a homogeneous group.
Religions are not the people who claim them. Religions are a system of worship, they are not the biological worshippers themselves whose equality must be upheld.
Thinking this way can only lead to the mistake of equating differentiation between religious ideologies with bigotry and racism and brings any attempt at analysis of these different ideologies to a halt.
Again, people should be treated as individuals but we must also recognize that the widespread adoption of an ideology will have consequences concurrent with it’s themes and beliefs.
Islam is different from Christianity which is different from Buddhism which is different from Humanism which is different from Jainism and so on. Religions are not all the same. They are not people.
There is a theme currently accepted by many that religions are all equally bad and that it is somehow bigoted to think of some as being worse than others. I think that this notion arises from this flawed belief that was given as the explanation for why we should ignore the differences between religious texts.
“Religions are the people who claim them”
The fundamental flaw here is the conflation of people and religion. There is a desire to treat all religions the same.. in the way that we treat all people the same. As equals. It is a desire to grant religions equality so as to head off bigotry against the believers of those religions. While a laudable goal the truth is that ideologies, whether religious or secular vary. They are to be judged on their content not their mere existence.
This conflation error gives rise to the problem of granting religion a special privilege that we don’t grant to secular ideologies. This has been the cause of religion getting a free pass for far too long.
It is in fact very important to make sure to separate people from ideology and not to lump them together in this careless fashion. For example, while it is OK to hold a belief that communism, and capitalism and fascism etc. are different from one another and to even conclude that one is better/worse, some want religious ideologies (which can be every bit as different from one another) to be treated as equals, the same way we treat people as equals. This puts religious ideologies on an unassailable pedestal.
It is also very important for anyone to understand that criticism of a religion and its sacred beliefs is NOT a blanket condemnation of all adherents. For example, while it is OK to criticize and condemn communism, it is not OK to conduct communist witch hunts. You can even be friends with communists while viewing communism as a big mistake. Same thing applies to Islam and Muslims for example. It is absolutely bigoted to lump them all together and treat them as a homogeneous group.
Religions are not the people who claim them. Religions are a system of worship, they are not the biological worshippers themselves whose equality must be upheld.
Thinking this way can only lead to the mistake of equating differentiation between religious ideologies with bigotry and racism and brings any attempt at analysis of these different ideologies to a halt.
Again, people should be treated as individuals but we must also recognize that the widespread adoption of an ideology will have consequences concurrent with it’s themes and beliefs.
Islam is different from Christianity which is different from Buddhism which is different from Humanism which is different from Jainism and so on. Religions are not all the same. They are not people.
If god was real he wouldn't need middle men to explain his wants or do his bidding.
