I've often seen it asked of atheists and anti-theists why they care about religions they consider nonsense. It's a fair question, what difference does it make to me what the religious believe? Why not mind my own business? Id like to know why others hold a similar position, or an opposite one for that matter. I have many reasons I could give for being anti-theist, far too many, but this post will be too long anyway (apologies). Here is the main one.
Extremism.
The majority of religious people are good people who value empathy and compassion and are capable of showing it to those not in their faith. this feels like stating the obvious but I feel I need to explicitly state it when talking about extremism...
The problem is that all religions have some ethically bankrupt teachings, which even if happily ignored by the vast majority of the faithful, still remain as part of the religion (generally in scripture). The inconsistencies between the texts and the actions/beliefs of the faithful seems to be resolved by what I consider to be quite creative and entertaining reasoning as to why something stated in texts does not actually mean what it says, or there is always flat out denial. Naturally these hot-spots are always based on what is socially/culturally acceptable at the time.
Now this is pretty harmless right? Maybe a bit kooky but the logical hurdles they jump to reconcile reality and religion are somewhat impressive. If that was all there was to it I wouldn't remotely care about the beliefs of the religious, I'd say it's none of my business.
This was more or less my view on religion when I was young and the only extremism I was aware of was mostly confined to Northern Ireland, two sects of Christianity killing each other, while deeply tragic it was none of my business. Then 9/11 happened, and I realised that actually it was everybodys business.
Unfortunately there are and always will be some people that are, for want of a better term, complete pricks. Those extremists who identify with a particular religion can find justification for their prickery via the worst their 'holy' texts have to offer, because the texts either explicitly do justify it or are so vague they could mean whatever you want them to mean. And the fact that they identify with a larger group only serves to reinforce their beliefs, this allows them to feel vindicated in their personal beliefs and do abhorrent things with a clear conscience, even though those actions may conflict with the views of the majority of the group.
It's a case of a minority spoiling it for the rest of them, but that's just how it goes.
The unalterable word of god syndrome just exacerbates matters. The problem of extremism could be vastly reduced in the long term if instead of making up half baked excuses for the worst parts of their faith, or just flat out denying that those parts even exist, they could be edited out by progressives within the religion. Realistically this seems very unlikely since the texts are considered sacred, untouchable, in some cases even the supposed word of a god. As things are now, scripture is imbued with divine properties which once again only helps the extremists convince themselves that their views are not only correct, but divinely inspired.
Religion, and all the people who practice it unwillingly and unknowingly enable extremism, without a large group to identify with extremists would have no base to derive so much certainty and justification for their beliefs/actions. If the Aztec religion was still around today most would not practice human sacrifice, however I'm damn sure you would get the occasional nutcase who is absolutely certain it is an important part of their cultural and religious heritage.
Extremism.
The majority of religious people are good people who value empathy and compassion and are capable of showing it to those not in their faith. this feels like stating the obvious but I feel I need to explicitly state it when talking about extremism...
The problem is that all religions have some ethically bankrupt teachings, which even if happily ignored by the vast majority of the faithful, still remain as part of the religion (generally in scripture). The inconsistencies between the texts and the actions/beliefs of the faithful seems to be resolved by what I consider to be quite creative and entertaining reasoning as to why something stated in texts does not actually mean what it says, or there is always flat out denial. Naturally these hot-spots are always based on what is socially/culturally acceptable at the time.
Now this is pretty harmless right? Maybe a bit kooky but the logical hurdles they jump to reconcile reality and religion are somewhat impressive. If that was all there was to it I wouldn't remotely care about the beliefs of the religious, I'd say it's none of my business.
This was more or less my view on religion when I was young and the only extremism I was aware of was mostly confined to Northern Ireland, two sects of Christianity killing each other, while deeply tragic it was none of my business. Then 9/11 happened, and I realised that actually it was everybodys business.
Unfortunately there are and always will be some people that are, for want of a better term, complete pricks. Those extremists who identify with a particular religion can find justification for their prickery via the worst their 'holy' texts have to offer, because the texts either explicitly do justify it or are so vague they could mean whatever you want them to mean. And the fact that they identify with a larger group only serves to reinforce their beliefs, this allows them to feel vindicated in their personal beliefs and do abhorrent things with a clear conscience, even though those actions may conflict with the views of the majority of the group.
It's a case of a minority spoiling it for the rest of them, but that's just how it goes.
The unalterable word of god syndrome just exacerbates matters. The problem of extremism could be vastly reduced in the long term if instead of making up half baked excuses for the worst parts of their faith, or just flat out denying that those parts even exist, they could be edited out by progressives within the religion. Realistically this seems very unlikely since the texts are considered sacred, untouchable, in some cases even the supposed word of a god. As things are now, scripture is imbued with divine properties which once again only helps the extremists convince themselves that their views are not only correct, but divinely inspired.
Religion, and all the people who practice it unwillingly and unknowingly enable extremism, without a large group to identify with extremists would have no base to derive so much certainty and justification for their beliefs/actions. If the Aztec religion was still around today most would not practice human sacrifice, however I'm damn sure you would get the occasional nutcase who is absolutely certain it is an important part of their cultural and religious heritage.
