"Left" in this post refers to the broad section of people who aren't Liberal voters (or anything even crazier than that) so basically everyone on my newsfeed is about to hate me.
Cheers :)
I'm a little angry right now. Facebook is usually full of crap but maybe I'm on an edge from other stuff and this just has pushed me over. I'm actually so agitated that I'm having trouble even typing.
This does not happen often.
I don't understand how so many leftist people justify their anti-religious bigotry to themselves. Coming from a corner that generally promotes love, tolerance and not demeaning people based on their sexuality or race ot gender or anything else, it boggles the mind. I'm sick of seeing my newsfeed flooded with people labelling religion as the "opiate of the masses", and God as a fictitious creature for the mentally deficient. The snideness and contempt is disgusting. It's disrespect on the most basic level, not even veiled like in the case of casual racism/sexism. HOW do they reconcile themselves to this inconsistence! What is going through someone's mind when they post this crap, in perfect knowledge that it's going to be appearing on the newsfeed of people that have actually told them they are of faith? It's so callous.
I'm starting to think that their selectiveness exposes that their moral compass only becomes relevant if it happens to be a "fashionably" leftist issue at that moment in time. In the long run, this is destructive! Universal love and tolerance is fucking UNIVERSAL, not dependent on whether you agree. I'm not denying your right not to believe in God or publicly state that is the case. I definitely wouldn't, given that I used to be atheist myself, for a while. I have a problem with the treatment of people of faith as if they have half a brain.
I'm trying to smother my anger and look at it from their level. I think the reason that people act this way is because of an incomplete, two-dimensional unerstanding of what religion is. You're only looking at structures that have oppressed people and started wars. Religion is not a monolihic institution. Sure, it has been used to suppress people, to start wars. To close off excellent ideas. But! Did you know, religion is a force that has shaped the lives of people over many millenia so it actually spans a LOT OF THINGS. Some things start somewhere, branch off into completely different directions which curl and tangle over each other. New branches sprout, others deaden and drop off. It is so ridiculous to reduce something that has seeped deeply into the lives of people, into different dimensions of their existence, in this way. To conflate ALL of religion with this thin slice of destructiveness and totally marginalise how much meaning it has for so many people, is ridiculous. Has it occurred to you that this negative reductionism is EXACTLY what fuels the kinds of bigotry that you typically stand up against?
There are as many religions as there are people. Religion is the framework that we use to try and reach God. It is made up of people. People are crazy. Hence, religion is sometimes flawed, but that doesn't invalidate it altogether. I’m not sure where I read this analogy, but it's excellent. Take religion as being represented by a banana. The most important part of the banana is the flesh inside, the core, but we’re all paying attention to the peel, the symbolism and ritualism that surrounds it. The reason we even gave God a name and face at all is just to make him easier to relate to and less abstract and... mystical.
Angry rant is over but I think I'll keep going.
All religious texts, while they may be rooted in divine inspiration, have also been filtered through the pen (quill, whatever) of a man and it is important to exercise some discernment. How do you judge what to ignore? It's a difficult, complex question, but I think if they disregard the value of universal compassion (INCLUDING THE NATURAL WORLD!) and mutual respect in any way, or are predominantly destructive/suppressive then they should be dropped. Yes your book has a lot of good things in it, but it isn't a substitute for a brain!
Cheers :)
I'm a little angry right now. Facebook is usually full of crap but maybe I'm on an edge from other stuff and this just has pushed me over. I'm actually so agitated that I'm having trouble even typing.
This does not happen often.
I don't understand how so many leftist people justify their anti-religious bigotry to themselves. Coming from a corner that generally promotes love, tolerance and not demeaning people based on their sexuality or race ot gender or anything else, it boggles the mind. I'm sick of seeing my newsfeed flooded with people labelling religion as the "opiate of the masses", and God as a fictitious creature for the mentally deficient. The snideness and contempt is disgusting. It's disrespect on the most basic level, not even veiled like in the case of casual racism/sexism. HOW do they reconcile themselves to this inconsistence! What is going through someone's mind when they post this crap, in perfect knowledge that it's going to be appearing on the newsfeed of people that have actually told them they are of faith? It's so callous.
I'm starting to think that their selectiveness exposes that their moral compass only becomes relevant if it happens to be a "fashionably" leftist issue at that moment in time. In the long run, this is destructive! Universal love and tolerance is fucking UNIVERSAL, not dependent on whether you agree. I'm not denying your right not to believe in God or publicly state that is the case. I definitely wouldn't, given that I used to be atheist myself, for a while. I have a problem with the treatment of people of faith as if they have half a brain.
I'm trying to smother my anger and look at it from their level. I think the reason that people act this way is because of an incomplete, two-dimensional unerstanding of what religion is. You're only looking at structures that have oppressed people and started wars. Religion is not a monolihic institution. Sure, it has been used to suppress people, to start wars. To close off excellent ideas. But! Did you know, religion is a force that has shaped the lives of people over many millenia so it actually spans a LOT OF THINGS. Some things start somewhere, branch off into completely different directions which curl and tangle over each other. New branches sprout, others deaden and drop off. It is so ridiculous to reduce something that has seeped deeply into the lives of people, into different dimensions of their existence, in this way. To conflate ALL of religion with this thin slice of destructiveness and totally marginalise how much meaning it has for so many people, is ridiculous. Has it occurred to you that this negative reductionism is EXACTLY what fuels the kinds of bigotry that you typically stand up against?
There are as many religions as there are people. Religion is the framework that we use to try and reach God. It is made up of people. People are crazy. Hence, religion is sometimes flawed, but that doesn't invalidate it altogether. I’m not sure where I read this analogy, but it's excellent. Take religion as being represented by a banana. The most important part of the banana is the flesh inside, the core, but we’re all paying attention to the peel, the symbolism and ritualism that surrounds it. The reason we even gave God a name and face at all is just to make him easier to relate to and less abstract and... mystical.
Angry rant is over but I think I'll keep going.
All religious texts, while they may be rooted in divine inspiration, have also been filtered through the pen (quill, whatever) of a man and it is important to exercise some discernment. How do you judge what to ignore? It's a difficult, complex question, but I think if they disregard the value of universal compassion (INCLUDING THE NATURAL WORLD!) and mutual respect in any way, or are predominantly destructive/suppressive then they should be dropped. Yes your book has a lot of good things in it, but it isn't a substitute for a brain!
