My tagline - Religion: Often the quickest path from ignorance to arrogance and/or condescension - an explanation, since I know it doesn't apply to all and might seem offensive to so many.
We are all born essentially ignorant - lacking all the knowledge we acquire over time - so no slight meant there.
It often appears to be the case that many who have a religious belief will either justify their belief by simply saying 'I know it to be true' - from a certain acceptance or via a 'spiritual' experience perhaps or both - or they will be convinced of their case by a variety of other means, perhaps related to how much religious material or teaching they have had or how much thinking they have done. Perhaps they are right, I don't know, but I would never claim that anything I believed or didn't believe was actually 'the truth' - I just don't see it as being possible for humans to know 'the truth'. Perhaps I am just too honest to ever do so, but the claim by others does often come across as arrogance, even if it is unintentional. 'I know' is just a convenient end to discussion or challenge. Quoting any religious text is also rather convenient, and just a second-hand way of doing the same thing.
Following on from this, sometimes comes the condescension, whereby those accepting of a particular religious belief often judge others (usually by the values given to them by their religious belief) and thereby placing them into some category - often being seen as less of an individual or as uneducated in their particular religious doctrine so dismissible - and perhaps in need of reeducating and/or sympathy or something else. And what often comes with this is a tendency to belittle others, when instead one should perhaps have more humility in recognising that your belief, although shared by so many others too, is simply a belief - and not proven - not to another's satisfaction at least. The claims for religions being the sole source and arbiter of morality being one example of such condescension, as is the argument by numbers of believers.
I doubt all this will help many though, since we are often attached to our beliefs as much as shipwrecked sailors to the nearest piece of flotsam. I'm sure many will be angry that others choose to challenge their religious beliefs, often seemingly without respect, but for many of us, religious beliefs are just another belief system amongst others to be challenged - and having as much value as any other with regards any authenticity.
I hope this explains why I use such a tagline. It might be distasteful perhaps but it is there to make one think rather than anything else. I know I do often come across as disrespectful, and I apologise, but I am as human as the next.
We are all born essentially ignorant - lacking all the knowledge we acquire over time - so no slight meant there.
It often appears to be the case that many who have a religious belief will either justify their belief by simply saying 'I know it to be true' - from a certain acceptance or via a 'spiritual' experience perhaps or both - or they will be convinced of their case by a variety of other means, perhaps related to how much religious material or teaching they have had or how much thinking they have done. Perhaps they are right, I don't know, but I would never claim that anything I believed or didn't believe was actually 'the truth' - I just don't see it as being possible for humans to know 'the truth'. Perhaps I am just too honest to ever do so, but the claim by others does often come across as arrogance, even if it is unintentional. 'I know' is just a convenient end to discussion or challenge. Quoting any religious text is also rather convenient, and just a second-hand way of doing the same thing.
Following on from this, sometimes comes the condescension, whereby those accepting of a particular religious belief often judge others (usually by the values given to them by their religious belief) and thereby placing them into some category - often being seen as less of an individual or as uneducated in their particular religious doctrine so dismissible - and perhaps in need of reeducating and/or sympathy or something else. And what often comes with this is a tendency to belittle others, when instead one should perhaps have more humility in recognising that your belief, although shared by so many others too, is simply a belief - and not proven - not to another's satisfaction at least. The claims for religions being the sole source and arbiter of morality being one example of such condescension, as is the argument by numbers of believers.
I doubt all this will help many though, since we are often attached to our beliefs as much as shipwrecked sailors to the nearest piece of flotsam. I'm sure many will be angry that others choose to challenge their religious beliefs, often seemingly without respect, but for many of us, religious beliefs are just another belief system amongst others to be challenged - and having as much value as any other with regards any authenticity.
I hope this explains why I use such a tagline. It might be distasteful perhaps but it is there to make one think rather than anything else. I know I do often come across as disrespectful, and I apologise, but I am as human as the next.