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Which religion is the greatest threat to secularism?

Which of these options is the greatest threat to secularism in your opinion

  • Catholicism

    Votes: 1 4.3%
  • Islam

    Votes: 19 82.6%
  • Protestantism

    Votes: 1 4.3%
  • Judaism

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hinduism

    Votes: 2 8.7%

  • Total voters
    23

ADigitalArtist

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
I gauss the way im looking at this is to ignor the word religion and secular and just pay attention to IDEAS. To peer at the idea and see if one is better then the other. Everything else is NOISE.
I agree. That's why I'm a type of secularist. If someone can come up with no better reason to put forward an idea than it's part of their religion or tradition, then it's not something that should be law. Merit based ideas only.
 

Cacotopia

Let's go full Trottle
I would say technically all of them as each of them "threaten" secular ideals in various ways with their religious thought processes? Like Buddhism, while not an upstart religion like most of the others I think their view on karma leads to a suspension of both justice and being proactive to seeking out justice or answers for why X is equal to y. Because it was "supposed" to happen. Jimmy has dyslexia because in a past life he burned books for the Nazi regime, that's just a random example but instead of learning to cope and figure out how to overcome, I think Jimmy is subtly *encouraged* to suffer in his predicament.

Why? And while this is not as hard a form of religious expression it is still as equally dangerous because it 'seems' to not be a threat.

anyways those are my 2 cents..
 

wandering peacefully

Which way to the woods?
I would say technically all of them as each of them "threaten" secular ideals in various ways with their religious thought processes? Like Buddhism, while not an upstart religion like most of the others I think their view on karma leads to a suspension of both justice and being proactive to seeking out justice or answers for why X is equal to y. Because it was "supposed" to happen. Jimmy has dyslexia because in a past life he burned books for the Nazi regime, that's just a random example but instead of learning to cope and figure out how to overcome, I think Jimmy is subtly *encouraged* to suffer in his predicament.

Why? And while this is not as hard a form of religious expression it is still as equally dangerous because it 'seems' to not be a threat.

anyways those are my 2 cents..

I'm not Buddhist but I do think the original teachings of Buddha are extremely helpful for anyone. From what I understand of the religion buddhism, i don't think that is really what "karma" is about? But I know there are a lot of different beliefs connected with Buddhists. I don't think it is a threat to secularism. The original teachings are of a humanist nature and work very well with secular life.
 

Cacotopia

Let's go full Trottle
n
I'm not Buddhist but I do think the original teachings of Buddha are extremely helpful for anyone. From what I understand of the religion buddhism, i don't think that is really what "karma" is about? But I know there are a lot of different beliefs connected with Buddhists. I don't think it is a threat to secularism. The original teachings are of a humanist nature and work very well with secular life.
No but I can see how easily they can be abused.

I have had some discussions with some Buddhists that literally think this way.

The woman the lives downstairs from me, thinks exactly like this.

Example: if the farmer decides to poison one of our dogs, which to be fair one of them likes killing chickens and ducks as a hobby. But the other dog has never killed anything larger than a fly, but we had a discussion one day if something were to happen, to the fly swatter dog, her answer was it was supposed to happen and no recourse should be taken.

My recourse is to salt a section of his crops.

This is rather infuriating to me, since she takes that philosophy to almost every facet of life.
 
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Milton Platt

Well-Known Member
I'm especially wanting to hear from people who promote or favor secularism. Which of the choices in the Poll would you consider the greatest threat to secularism? (in your opinion).

Didn’t vote because “none of the above” wasn’t an option.
I don’t see religion as a threat to secularist thought.
 

Epic Beard Man

Bearded Philosopher
I would say Islam because Islamic government still has laws against criticizing the Prophet Muhammad where a person can be executed or in prison for a long time for doing so.

This has nothing to do Islam though. There are government with laws regarding speaking out against prophets. did you know you can't speak out against Moses, Jesus, or Noah? You think these laws are specific to Muhammad? The point is countries have laws. But all predominant Muslim countries aren't the same when it comes to legality. Indonesia does not have the same laws as Saudi Arabia just as Turkey does not have the same as Syria.
 

Spiderman

Veteran Member
This has nothing to do Islam though. There are government with laws regarding speaking out against prophets. did you know you can't speak out against Moses, Jesus, or Noah? You think these laws are specific to Muhammad? The point is countries have laws. But all predominant Muslim countries aren't the same when it comes to legality. Indonesia does not have the same laws as Saudi Arabia just as Turkey does not have the same as Syria.
It has a lot to do with Islam, because the point of those governments is to force Islam down everyone's throat and not allow criticizing the Qur'an. forcing religion down people's throats and killing non-muslims was the practice of Muhammad, and Muslims have been following his ruthless, intolerant, bigoted example for 1400 years.

That behavior was the practice of Muhammad and the early Muslims, so that behavior has everything to do with Islam.
 
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Epic Beard Man

Bearded Philosopher
It has a lot to do with Islam, because the point of those governments is to force Islam down everyone's throat and not allow criticizing the Qur'an. forcing religion down people's throats and killing non-muslims was the practice of Muhammad, and Muslims have been following his ruthless, intolerant, bigoted example for 1400 years.

That behavior was the practice of Muhammad and the early Muslims, so that behavior has everything to do with Islam.

Do you have any evidence all Muslim governments are shoving Islam down the throats of people besides your own opinion? Is Turkey currently doing this?
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
I'm especially wanting to hear from people who promote or favor secularism. Which of the choices in the Poll would you consider the greatest threat to secularism? (in your opinion).
Necessarily, each religion equally threatens secularism.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
So, secularism is seperation of religious ideas from government. But....then securalism has its own ideas and they dont seperate those ideas from government.

So....why should religions ideas be seperated from government but secular ideas should not?

Doesent that start off with the assumption that securlar ideas are right and religious ideas are wrong?
Where a secular government embraces a religion, it is no longer a secular government.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
Right. so... which one is better and why, a religious government or a secular one?
Secular, of course. A religious government would be intolerant of a certain portion of the population, whereas a secular government is tolerant of the entire population.
 

Milton Platt

Well-Known Member
Right. so... which one is better and why, a religious government or a secular one?

A secular government is far more likely to take into account the needs and desires of the broadest swath of it’s citizens (of course, not all forms of secular government necessarily would. A dictatorship, for instance. Bur that form mirrors a theocracy in many ways). A theocratic government would favor the views and desires of those who share the mythological beliefs of those in power, at the expense of those who have different beliefs.
 

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
In America, that would be the protestant fundamentalists.
Actually, I don't think so.

Protestant fundamentalists can't really agree on much. So they tend to oppose each other.

There are definitely some protestant fundamentalists who believe that their interpretation of Scripture should be law. But not all that many. Because other fundamentalists, who vote, also think that they are doing God's will.

Christians tend to oppose each other. That is very different from autocratic Muslim governments who tend to kill people who disagree with them.

Such as Kashoggi.
Tom
 
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