M
Mindy
Guest
Re: RESPECT MY RIGHT TO THINK YOU ARE AN IGNORANT BIGOT -- THANK YOU, COME AGAIN.
while i see your point, i was referring to oaf's tendancy to make sweeping generalizations in other posts, which he DOES in fact do. i am not a religious freak. it doesn't offend me on a personal level when he does this. it does however offend me on an intellectual level. everyone makes generalizations sometimes. i do it. you do it. he does it. but it's wrong to present your opinions as fact, which is what he does. he HAS said that a peace-loving islam is an oxymoron, but tries to say that i have said the same about republicans, which is asinine. now i am no stranger to criticizing religions, but i don't condemn an entire people because of the beliefs of a few whacked out extremists. anyway, i defend people/groups all the time who i don't like against the unfair and incorrect statements made against them because i know how it feels. when people find out i used to be a mormon, they still ask me if all mormons really believe that black people are "red-eyed monkeys" or similar stupid questions. growing up, i thought vegetarianism was pretty damn stupid, but i still defended it against ignorant people who made bizarre comments about it.
the bottom line is that religious beliefs are intensely personal things. unless a belief hurts someone, you can't really say it's wrong. i mean, i could say a lot of things about christians who actually still think that the creation story is literally true. but then again, i won't because it doesn't hurt me any! it doesn't hurt anybody else either as long as they keep it out of schools (i.e. leaving science to the schools and religion to the church, the family or the individual). therefore, i think i am right to say that oaf is ignorant for condemning an entire faith. it's too subjective and it defies reason. i mean, there is not a single religion that can be proved either true or false in spirit. creation myths can be proven to be literally untrue, but the essence of a religion cannot be. i am an atheist as i have said before, but i respect other people's rights to worship god any way they choose so long as it doesn't hurt anybody.
lastly, to confront some of what oaf has said about islam being excessively oppressive, i must agree that it is true in fundamentalist cases. the religion is marked by some misogyny and that is unfortunate, but many muslim women in western countries (and even in certain eastern ones) enjoy the same freedoms and exposure to new ideas as non muslim women, yet many of them still choose to wear their head coverings and do other things that are part of their religion and culture. i think it's wrong to, as oaf as done, chalk all of this up to religion. it's also a cultural thing. and finally, it is wrong to act so holier than thou when many western religions and cultures also oppress women or have done so in the recent past (as america has). i think all cultures mature at different rates and we can't just decide that the point we are in our history is the very zenith of humanity and therefore make rules for the rest of the world to live by.
while i see your point, i was referring to oaf's tendancy to make sweeping generalizations in other posts, which he DOES in fact do. i am not a religious freak. it doesn't offend me on a personal level when he does this. it does however offend me on an intellectual level. everyone makes generalizations sometimes. i do it. you do it. he does it. but it's wrong to present your opinions as fact, which is what he does. he HAS said that a peace-loving islam is an oxymoron, but tries to say that i have said the same about republicans, which is asinine. now i am no stranger to criticizing religions, but i don't condemn an entire people because of the beliefs of a few whacked out extremists. anyway, i defend people/groups all the time who i don't like against the unfair and incorrect statements made against them because i know how it feels. when people find out i used to be a mormon, they still ask me if all mormons really believe that black people are "red-eyed monkeys" or similar stupid questions. growing up, i thought vegetarianism was pretty damn stupid, but i still defended it against ignorant people who made bizarre comments about it.
the bottom line is that religious beliefs are intensely personal things. unless a belief hurts someone, you can't really say it's wrong. i mean, i could say a lot of things about christians who actually still think that the creation story is literally true. but then again, i won't because it doesn't hurt me any! it doesn't hurt anybody else either as long as they keep it out of schools (i.e. leaving science to the schools and religion to the church, the family or the individual). therefore, i think i am right to say that oaf is ignorant for condemning an entire faith. it's too subjective and it defies reason. i mean, there is not a single religion that can be proved either true or false in spirit. creation myths can be proven to be literally untrue, but the essence of a religion cannot be. i am an atheist as i have said before, but i respect other people's rights to worship god any way they choose so long as it doesn't hurt anybody.
lastly, to confront some of what oaf has said about islam being excessively oppressive, i must agree that it is true in fundamentalist cases. the religion is marked by some misogyny and that is unfortunate, but many muslim women in western countries (and even in certain eastern ones) enjoy the same freedoms and exposure to new ideas as non muslim women, yet many of them still choose to wear their head coverings and do other things that are part of their religion and culture. i think it's wrong to, as oaf as done, chalk all of this up to religion. it's also a cultural thing. and finally, it is wrong to act so holier than thou when many western religions and cultures also oppress women or have done so in the recent past (as america has). i think all cultures mature at different rates and we can't just decide that the point we are in our history is the very zenith of humanity and therefore make rules for the rest of the world to live by.
