A Muslim, a Jew, a Christian, and an atheist walk into a coffee shop...

[Iroscato]

In my experience, the original meme is far more accurate. Now I think on it, none of the Muslims, Christians or Jews that I've known in my life have gone all head-spinny and verse-quotey.

[Aroura]

I generally get along with folks who aren't assholes, and find that most of the time, the religionistas in my life get along with me, probably for the same reason.

I think your modification of the meme only truly applies to the extremists of each group.

Completely agree!  I have friends who go to church every Sunday who know I'm an atheist and treat me with plenty of respect.  Heck, when I was a Girl Scout leader, I was at first to admit my lack of religion, but after doing so, the religious parents in my troop didn't treat me any differently, and still trusted me perfectly well with their kids.


Extremists don't like ANYONE except people with their near exact ideology.  We can't lump a whole group in with their extremists (otherwise all atheists would be raging a-holes, lol).

[mlmooney89]

I'm an atheist, my husband is Catholic, one best friend is agnostic, and the other is Jewish... I swear when we go out together we are a walking joke. But then again we are all pretty laid back and the boys like to make fun of each others religion while still staying friends. The Jew tells the Catholic Jesus is a lie, the catholic and the agnostic said that the Jew doesn't spend money cause he is cheap, and they say the agnostic is just worried about missing out on heaven so he is leaving the door open. Granted they just call me a pessimist lol. We all laugh at all of them though. Our Jew moved to NC though to become a stupid doctor :p we miss him a lot.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I generally get along with folks who aren't assholes, and find that most of the time, the religionistas in my life get along with me, probably for the same reason.

I think your modification of the meme only truly applies to the extremists of each group.

By extremist, you mean one who *actually* identifies with the views of their extreme founders?

No. I mean the ones who cherry-pick the ugly parts for favor, and ignore the nicer parts.

So... are these non-assholes Jewish, Christian, Muslim, etc. in name only, and don't really believe what their self-identification as followers of these extreme founders/texts would suggest they do?

An atheist deploying No True Scotsman. I'm shocked ... shocked.

To answer your question directly, no, they're believers who cherry-pick the better parts of their books -- and the atheists, (which you conveniently left out, I notice) too, generally don't come across as ragers. At least, the ones I know don't. I wouldn't call anyone an asshole based on their beliefs (or lack) -- I save that sort of invective for their behavior.

If you're a militant atheist, that's great, have a good ride with that approach. Me, I take people as people first.

YMOV, etc etc.

[GrandizerII]

Assuming the Abrahamic religious believer has actually read the scriptures and follows a literal interpretation of them.

What is the non-literal interpretation of "Atheists are corrupt, do abominable deeds, and there is none who does good.  They will be consigned to a fiery lake of fire with wizards and harlots and murderers and there the Good Lord will replace their melted flesh to prolong their suffering" ....? I'm trying to come up with the beneficent interpretation but am having some trouble.

If they can interpret Genesis non-literally, they can do it with other verses as well. But of course, another key thing is a lot of believers ignore those verses anyway and don't give much thought about them. They look instead to verses that promote love or giving to the poor or serving the lord with all your heart (ok, this part may not be a virtuous thing, but it's harmless and non-offensive on its own).

[GrandizerII]

I generally get along with folks who aren't assholes, and find that most of the time, the religionistas in my life get along with me, probably for the same reason.

I think your modification of the meme only truly applies to the extremists of each group.

By extremist, you mean one who *actually* identifies with the views of their extreme founders? So... are these non-assholes Jewish, Christian, Muslim, etc. in name only, and don't really believe what their self-identification as followers of these extreme founders/texts would suggest they do?

Mudhammam, you're a smart guy. You normally do way better than this.

[Mudhammam]

Basically, what I am seeing is, "They cherry-pick the good stuff, by some dishonest method, but via some fantastical mental gymnastics I have arrived at the conclusion that they're in fact no less authentic in their faith as the sincere ones who actually attempt to follow their warped logic in a consistent manner." I'm not saying that these religious people in your lives, or most religious, are by any means bad people. They're simply either ignorant about what their texts say or willfully deceptive, with themselves or others, about what their most fundamental ideals about reality entail, per the commitments to certain principles which they have embraced in such identities as Jewish/Christian/Muslim (obviously, I'm not talking about ethnic or culture, but religious faith). If you're cool with that, then great. I'm not.

[robvalue]

The problem is that they generally stand by the whole book. And the books are disgusting. Whatever gymnastics they employ, they endorse a torture/death manual.

Once you're outside of a dogmatic mindset, you can extract useful parts from whatever source you want without having to (pretend to) wholeheartedly agree with everything the source says.

[GrandizerII]

Basically, what I am seeing is, "They cherry-pick the good stuff, by some dishonest method, but via some fantastical mental gymnastics I have arrived at the conclusion that they're in fact no less authentic in their faith as the sincere ones who actually attempt to follow their warped logic in a consistent manner."  I'm not saying that these religious people in your lives, or most religious, are by any means bad people.  They're simply either ignorant about what their texts say or willfully deceptive, with themselves or others, about what their most fundamental ideals about reality entail, per the commitments to certain principles which they have embraced in such identities as Jewish/Christian/Muslim (obviously, I'm not talking about ethnic or culture, but religious faith).  If you're cool with that, then great.  I'm not.

All of them are forced to cherry pick, one way or another (even the Westboro Baptist Church and ISIS). That's because the books are not internally consistent all throughout. You got verses about love and peace here, and then you have verses elsewhere promoting hatred and violence. So it's either going to be you either choose this part here or that. You can't be consistent otherwise.

This also assumes religion is all about holy books, which isn't true. It's more than that to many religious people (and in some cases, holy books don't mean anything to them).

[robvalue]

Indeed, I would respect very much a "Christian" who simply says they take inspiration from the bible, but doesn't consider it to be some infallible message. Then they can legitimately cherry pick, and everyone is better off for it. (Assuming they pick the fluffy parts.)