[el_magnifico]

Also, smoking is a good analogy for most religious people. Being around them just might kill you.

Even though you're as harsh as always , I sincerely thank you for using "most" this time. This admits the possibility that not every person in this world who has a religion has to be a negative influence. That being said, you're right when you affirm most people who have a religion (or an extremist ideology, dare I add) are always trying to push their interpretation of life on others. But trust me, I know that they are annoying, and I abhor such people as much as you do.

Seriously though, I have to go to sleep.

SO DO IT ALREADY.

I'm really puzzled at your attitude.

[iamzack]

I meant literally kill you. Religious people are forever flying planes into buildings, shooting doctors, making it legal for doctors to deny you truthful medical advice, blowing themselves up, blowing other people up...

[General Battuta]

I meant literally kill you. Religious people are forever flying planes into buildings, shooting doctors, making it legal for doctors to deny you truthful medical advice, blowing themselves up, blowing other people up...

You can't make that generalization about all religious people without statistics comparing them to non-religious people.

[iamzack]

Well, let me know when an atheist beats a kid to death for looking too gay and I'll reconsider my opinions.

[Thaeris]

I meant literally kill you. Religious people are forever flying planes into buildings, shooting doctors, making it legal for doctors to deny you truthful medical advice, blowing themselves up, blowing other people up...

Zack, I don't know who you're hanging around, but these assumptions you're pulling out of the air are a complete load of crap. Most of my friends have been religious of some sort (even of a different faith than mine), and never, EVER, have they or I done or considered such heinous acts ever approaching such terrible orders of magnitude - or even at all.

That said, please consider what you're writing here more carefully next time.

[Scotty]

Seriously.  Take the raging hate-on for religion somewhere else.

Does everyone here agree that any belief, taken too far, is a bad thing?  Why is it, then, that relgion is frequently (at least by iamzack) taken to be the epitome of bad because of a few people who take it too far?

[General Battuta]

One valid point she does have is that religious ideologies taken too far have produced a great deal of the suffering we see in the historical record. Religious regimes tend to be enduring, tyrannical, and highly visible, and worse yet, religion tends to be confounded with a lot of other highly conservative elements in a government (medieval Christianity, for example.)

But there are also many examples of non-religious ideologies that go too far. Nationalism, for instance, is nominally secular even if it's sometimes tied to religion.

[iamzack]

I meant literally kill you. Religious people are forever flying planes into buildings, shooting doctors, making it legal for doctors to deny you truthful medical advice, blowing themselves up, blowing other people up...

Zack, I don't know who you're hanging around, but these assumptions you're pulling out of the air are a complete load of crap. Most of my friends have been religious of some sort (even of a different faith than mine), and never, EVER, have they or I done or considered such heinous acts ever approaching such terrible orders of magnitude - or even at all.

That said, please consider what you're writing here more carefully next time.

All beagles are dogs, but not all dogs are beagles.

[el_magnifico]

I meant literally kill you. Religious people are forever flying planes into buildings, shooting doctors, making it legal for doctors to deny you truthful medical advice, blowing themselves up, blowing other people up...

Well, let me know when an atheist beats a kid to death for looking too gay and I'll reconsider my opinions.

Damn! I thought we were making progress here. Seriously iamzack, do you really believe I'm going to kill someone just because they look (or are) gay or something? if you do, then maybe this discussion is pointless now.

One valid point she does have is that religious ideologies taken too far have produced a great deal of the suffering we see in the historical record. Religious regimes tend to be enduring, tyrannical, and highly visible, and worse yet, religion tends to be confounded with a lot of other highly conservative elements in a government (medieval Christianity, for example.)

But there are also many examples of non-religious ideologies that go too far. Nationalism, for instance, is nominally secular even if it's sometimes tied to religion.

Exactly.

[iamzack]

Mostly I'm saying that if someone has strong religious beliefs, I am going to always be cautious. You never know who is going to be criminally insane, but if somebody drowns five kids in a bathtub, you can bet god told them to do it.

[Scotty]

Mostly I'm saying that if someone has strong religious beliefs, I am going to always be cautious. You never know who is going to be criminally insane, but if somebody drowns five kids in a bathtub, you can bet god told them to do it.

You can also bet that it's linked to some kind of mental disorder as well.  That's not religion.

[General Battuta]

Mostly I'm saying that if someone has strong religious beliefs, I am going to always be cautious. You never know who is going to be criminally insane, but if somebody drowns five kids in a bathtub, you can bet god told them to do it.

You've got a directionality problem there. For all you know religion is just an excuse or expression of a mental disorder.

I can understand caution towards religious people given that so many prominent religious figures condemn the lifestyles of, and tacitly endorse harm of, a great many people. But ultimately, treating all religious people as dangerous nutjobs is the same kind of thinking that leads all gay men to be treated as child molesters.

[el_magnifico]

You never know who is going to be criminally insane, but if somebody drowns five kids in a bathtub, you can bet god told them to do it.

No, you won't get it yet. Well, at least I tried.
Anyway, I wish you well.

[iamzack]

Mostly I'm saying that if someone has strong religious beliefs, I am going to always be cautious. You never know who is going to be criminally insane, but if somebody drowns five kids in a bathtub, you can bet god told them to do it.

You've got a directionality problem there. For all you know religion is just an excuse or expression of a mental disorder.

I can understand caution towards religious people given that so many prominent religious figures condemn the lifestyles of, and tacitly endorse harm of, a great many people. But ultimately, treating all religious people as dangerous nutjobs is the same kind of thinking that leads all gay men to be treated as child molesters.

Aren't most child molesters straight? Anyway, I'd be more apt to compare my regard for religious people to my regard for men's rights activists. Sure, they're not all rapists, but their ideology is crazy, and it's best to just avoid them.

[Scotty]

Aren't most child molesters straight?

That's the whole point.  It's a fautly stereotype.  And you seem to be all in favor of keeping a stereotype remarkably similar to that standing.

[iamzack]

Gay men don't subscribe to an ideology, they are just sexually attracted to other men.

Religious people willingly suspend reason to believe in weird contradictory myths.

It's the difference between just being white or actually joining the KKK.

[General Battuta]

*sigh*

I think this is pointless. But it is sad to see you engaging in the same kind of rampant, overgeneralized stereotyping that your stereotypical religious person deploys against gay people.

[Scotty]

Religious people willingly suspend reason to believe in weird contradictory myths.

It's the difference between just being white or actually joining the KKK.

And you willingly suspend reason to believe in weird contradictory stereotypes.

It's the difference between just being ignorant or actually being a hatemonger.

[BloodEagle]

Aren't most child molesters straight?

Assuming you're referring to pedophilia (how many times is this going to be brought up?), no.  In point of fact, asexual characteristics are sought after, so (theoretically, of course) no gender preference should exist.

--

Religious people willingly suspend reason to believe in weird contradictory myths.

It's the difference between just being white or actually joining the KKK.

And you willingly suspend reason to believe in weird contradictory stereotypes.

It's the difference between just being ignorant or actually being a hatemonger.

+5

[iamzack]

*sigh*

I think this is pointless. But it is sad to see you engaging in the same kind of rampant, overgeneralized stereotyping that your stereotypical religious person deploys against gay people.

Go find me a reasonable religious person and I promise I'll change my opinion.