Religion
In reply to the discussion: Please note: [View all]MellowDem
(5,018 posts)on par with anything else in that list is wrong. I don't know why the site administrators did it, but I'm guessing it's to keep the peace. Religion has a privileged status compared to other ideas, and this site bows to that privilege as much as most others do. They want the focus on politics. Fair enough, but it doesn't make the policy any less rational. You could rightly call political positions a "personal characteristic" under that logic. It's certainly comparable to religion in that it's a choice.
I've seen Republicans called all sorts of nasty things on this site, but it's not bigotry. Some of it may not be very substantive or good criticism, or even very rational, but that's just an ad hom fallacy, not bigotry, because Republicans are a political party with a defined ideology. The criticism is directed at the Republicans for holding ideas we don't like, not for inherent, unchangeable traits. Further, these ideas can hurt others when implemented, unlike, say, sexual orientation or the color of skin. You can say the exact same about religion, but many don't, because of it's privileged status and, of course, the focus of this board is politics. But the Republican Party mix the two often enough, and it's easy to see from that that they are no different as concepts as to each other, so no bigotry is involved in reality when criticizing religion, whatever the policies say IMHO. But I think banning ad homs against others covers any other situation, so saying someone is stupid because of their religious beliefs may be a bad argument, it is rude, and it shouldn't be on a discussion board, but it's not bigotry. Saying someone is stupid for being a Republican, by the way, is no better, but is allowed because of the forum we are on.
During the new Pope announcement, many harshly criticized the Pope and Catholic doctrine. Many others responded that this was bigotry. There were even some epic long threads by some about leaving DU which had become bigoted towards religion. That's one recent prominent example, but there are others from time to time.
Religion is a choice by its own definition. It's a belief system, not a physical trait. Everyone can choose beliefs. There is ample evidence to suggest that most people can be and are manipulated to believe certain things, so it's not a totally free choice (like anything else). That's why many atheists identify as free thinkers, because they are against manipulation of a person's mind and for critical inquiry, whether by religion or anything else.