It saddens me to see xenophobia even here at DU.

[Koinos]

10. I believe that fear or hatred of all religious doctrines is unreasonable.

Militant atheism is unreasonable. There are ethical lessons to be learned from every religious tradition.

The doctrine of "love your neighbor as yourself" (restated in many ways in every ethical or religious system) is quite reasonable and humane.

Hateful religious speech is another issue altogether. People who use words to stoke their own greed, hatred, and ignorance are the problem. And these people will always be able to find some texts that "justify" their unreasonable hatred.

But why fear words? Critical thinking and ethical principle help sort things out.

It might be better to ask whether anger is reasonable. There is certainly a lot of it these days, but is it "practical"? Does it make things better rather than worse?

There is a lot of anger everywhere, even on DU. I fear anger more than words.