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Religion is not funny.

GardenLady

Active Member
I'm not against religion per se (most are just fine with me), just religions like Christianity and Islam that want to intrude into government and impose their values on unwilling people, or that teach that atheists (and homosexuals) are immoral and deserve to be scorned and treated with contempt.

The use of “Christianity” in such statements bothers me greatly. As is often observed here, there are thousands of Christian sects. Personally, I belong to an ELCA Lutheran parish that is moderately progressive, highly focused on service to the community (the whole community and not just our members), and has zero interest in using the government to impose our beliefs on others by force of law or through public schools. We have no doctrines (such as a literal view of Genesis) opposing or denying science supporting the ToE or deep time. Vaccination is encouraged, our church was slow to reopen and at low capacity, and masks are required.

So let’s not paint all “Christianity” with a broad brush that really means primarily fundamentalism, Catholicism, and JWs.

ETA: I myself strongly oppose any use of government to impose religious beliefs on the populace, including laws restricting unrelated consenting adults from marrying, laws restricting reproductive health services (pre-viability), and laws supporting or tolerating creationism or ID in public school classrooms.
 
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Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
Glad you agree with me about my main point that Religion can be downright dangerous, hope you feel better after your rant, long day was it?

You must start a thread about your mind reading abilities, will be interesting to know where you think they come from because statistically you will find no one has ever been able to show they existed.
Of course, anyone who finds a flaw in your way of thinking must be in a blind rage, huh @Justanatheist ? :D

That's some bulletproof I'mrightism you got there. :thumbsup:
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
I always used to think of religion as mildly amusing, if people want to live their lives believing in all sorts of weird and wonderful things, that is fine by me, why should I care?
Similar thoughts I have
If people want to live their lives disbelieving God and other weird and wonderful disbeliefs, that is fine by me, why should I care;)

Religion is not funny, it can be downright dangerous.
It is not Religion that is dangerous, it is the people who do the acting that make the trouble (or not).
Because even within the same Religion some act Dharmic (righteous) and others not

Same for Atheism. Atheism (as in Atheists) is not funny, it can be downright dangerous too, esp. when arrogance/demeaning raises it's hood
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
Last night I witnessed a thread develop on here posted by a lady who believes she is being "visited" by a "presence" The lady told us she was already on tablets to stop hallucinations. The advice from many of the religious on this forum? not go and see your doctor as any responsible adult would do but talk of angels and demons and something called a jinn. Calls to pray to whatever god that person believed in. I was astonished and not a little angry.
Your reply: I was astonished and not a little 'angry'

Starting a new thread, to talk about "a lady" (another real person), without inviting her by name. That's really 'not done'.

Very irresponsible to tell a newcomer, this lady, you might as well name her, because otherwise it is talking behind her back, so @Sakla, not even 24 hours on RF, to go see a (mental) doctor. What an arrogance, acting as if you are a witch doctor or having a glass ball, because I am pretty sure you are not Omniscient AND you never met her in real life. Just virtual diagnosing someone else you never met. Quite an exhibition of science here. Beside that, it is quite demeaning/belittling, even when meant well

The lady just asked what people thought about her experience, she did not ask whether or not she was a 'mental case' who needed to see a mental doctor, and my feeling was from the start that she was not waiting/happy to see such replies, hence those who replied that way were definitely lacking empathy, unless my feeling was off here, then I lack empathy.

I find such behavior quite distasteful to say the least (suggesting someone you never met, to see a 'mental doctor').

Especially when unasked. I think an apology by you to her is in place here
 
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mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
Glad you agree with me about my main point that Religion can be downright dangerous, hope you feel better after your rant, long day was it?

You must start a thread about your mind reading abilities, will be interesting to know where you think they come from because statistically you will find no one has ever been able to show they existed.

What is Religion?
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
Glad you agree with me about my main point that Religion can be downright dangerous, hope you feel better after your rant, long day was it?

You must start a thread about your mind reading abilities, will be interesting to know where you think they come from because statistically you will find no one has ever been able to show they existed.
If you say so, you are the mind reader, another bad day?
I actually have been considering starting a thread about my mind reading abilities.

Particularly about how much it hurts when I have to squint. :thumbsup:

Actually I'm having a great morning and I haven't even had my coffee yet, thanks for asking.
 
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mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
I always used to think of religion as mildly amusing, if people want to live their lives believing in all sorts of weird and wonderful things, that is fine by me, why should I care?

Last night I witnessed a thread develop on here posted by a lady who believes she is being "visited" by a "presence" The lady told us she was already on tablets to stop hallucinations. The advice from many of the religious on this forum? not go and see your doctor as any responsible adult would do but talk of angels and demons and something called a jinn. Calls to pray to whatever god that person believed in. I was astonished and not a little angry.

Can you imagine if a woman came on here and said she had a lump in her breast and posters told her to see a witch doctor! There would be outrage and quite rightly so.

Mental health is a well established science it can help people. Hats off to those religious people who did advise her to see a doctor first.

For me this is an example of how religion can be worrying, it is not always the obvious like flying planes into buildings, anti vaxxing or hating on those like the LGBT community who suffer from religious bigotry, it can often be barely noticeable how religion affects our society.

Religion is not funny, it can be downright dangerous.

Please explain what mental health science is?
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
Did I or was I having a conversation?

I always used to think of religion as mildly amusing, if people want to live their lives believing in all sorts of weird and wonderful things, that is fine by me, why should I care?

Last night I witnessed a thread develop on here posted by a lady who believes she is being "visited" by a "presence" The lady told us she was already on tablets to stop hallucinations. The advice from many of the religious on this forum? not go and see your doctor as any responsible adult would do but talk of angels and demons and something called a jinn. Calls to pray to whatever god that person believed in. I was astonished and not a little angry.

Can you imagine if a woman came on here and said she had a lump in her breast and posters told her to see a witch doctor! There would be outrage and quite rightly so.

Mental health is a well established science it can help people. Hats off to those religious people who did advise her to see a doctor first.

For me this is an example of how religion can be worrying, it is not always the obvious like flying planes into buildings, anti vaxxing or hating on those like the LGBT community who suffer from religious bigotry, it can often be barely noticeable how religion affects our society.

Religion is not funny, it can be downright dangerous.

I don't know! You tell me, what you mean by "Mental health is a well established science it can help people." or it was it is going on here is you having a conversation or what not? You tell me! What is going on in this thread and what are you doing?
 

Justanatheist

Well-Known Member
I don't know! You tell me, what you mean by "Mental health is a well established science it can help people." or it was it is going on here is you having a conversation or what not? You tell me! What is going on in this thread and what are you doing?
I was talking about how religion can be dangerous, you appear to want to talk about something else, this is not a formal debate this is a discussion forum, now do you want to talk about how religion can be dangerous or not?
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
I was talking about how religion can be dangerous, you appear to want to talk about something else, this is not a formal debate this is a discussion forum, now do you want to talk about how religion can be dangerous or not?

This is in religious debates. So I debate.
And no, religion in not dangerous. There are humans, who do behavior you subjectively judge bad and someone of them in some cases use reasoning you label as religion. Your label religion is apparently subjective and what religion is, would change, if you change how you use your view of what religion is.
 

Justanatheist

Well-Known Member
This is in religious debates. So I debate.
And no, religion in not dangerous. There are humans, who do behavior you subjectively judge bad and someone of them in some cases use reasoning you label as religion. Your label religion is apparently subjective and what religion is, would change, if you change how you use your view of what religion is.

Did I say religion is dangerous or religion can be dangerous?
Can you give me an example of an atheist suicide bomber?
 

Justanatheist

Well-Known Member
Okay, I accept that.



That depends on what you mean by atheist?
What do you think I mean, in a general conversation on a discussion forum do you think I might mean the general usage by general people. Now again where are you going with this, perhaps if you explained what you are trying to get at, this conversation would not be so stagnated and mind bendingly boring.
 

RestlessSoul

Well-Known Member
Did I say religion is dangerous or religion can be dangerous?
Can you give me an example of an atheist suicide bomber?


Not sure to what extent, if any, Japanese Kamikaze pilots in WWII were motivated by religion. Most would presumably have been Zen Buddhists, by culture, if not by belief. So certainly not “theists” (I hate that word) anyway.


The Tamil Tigers pioneered the use of suicide attacks during their war of independence in Sri Lanka. Tamil Tigers were a secular nationalist political organisation.
 
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