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In reply to the discussion: You Won’t Believe What These Muslims Are Protesting About [View all]MellowDem
(5,018 posts)There is NOTHING WRONG with criticizing religion. Given that Islam and Christianity, the two biggest, are both inherently misogynistic and oppressive in a whole host of ways through their religious text, and given that their holy books have disgusting, vile, horrible shit all throughout them, YOU WILL hear all sorts of criticism of these belief systems on a progressive forum.
It is NOT "being an asshole" to criticize these belief systems.
The FACT that quite a few Christians and Muslims in the developed world have had to come to grips with their belief systems and moderate their beliefs through constant intellectual dishonesty and cognitive dissonance doesn't change what the belief systems are, it doesn't change what is written in the religious texts, and it doesn't change the flaw in faith-based beliefs.
Your "concern" is nothing more than a defense of the millenia-long MASSIVE PRIVILEGE religion gets in comparison to every idea, philosophy, or belief system out there as somehow being protected from harsh criticism. Well FUCK THAT.
I hear nobody complaining on here about incredibly harsh criticism of the Republican Party platform. Do you know why? Because it's perfectly rational and relevant. What make religions special? Anyone? Bueller?
There is no such thing as "anti-religious hatred", that's like saying "anti-austerity hatred" or some other made up crap. It's a way to try to label criticism of an idea as somehow impolite. And there certainly isn't anything bigoted with rationally criticizing a belief system.
As for the story, I'm glad that most Christians and Muslims and Jews etc. in the US pretty much don't believe most of or follow most of their own belief system or religious texts, that they cherry-pick the progressive sentiments and ignore the conservative ones in many instances, because if they were more consistent, it would be a pretty terrible place. But I have no problem pointing out that their belief system is still terrible, and their use of intellectual dishonesty, cognitive dissonance, and irrational apologetics does nothing to change that fact, it proves the point.
Faith-based thinking is dangerous and bad for society, and I will always point that out, and it's not being an asshole to do so. Calling those who fairly and rationally criticize belief systems "assholes" and "bigots" is stupid ignorant shit.