Remind me again where you go on Sunday? Unless your answer is “To the bar to watch the Steelers,” just fill in your religion of choice. There’s one. You’re Catholic, IIRC. That’s one of the weirdest gangs on the planet.
God forbid one rips into Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists et al. on a personal level. (Well, some Dopers do, to be fair.) But why are those beliefs any less bizarre? Their organizations have certainly hurt a great many people.
Scientologists are responsible for Battlefield Earth. Doesn’t that tell you enough about how fucked up they are?
No, actually I was raised Catholic, but I’m no longer practicing.
Well, the Bible isn’t Christian.
And, of course, knowing this group of scoundrels, I should clarify that. Lest I be denounced for not knowing Christians read the Bible.
Reading the Bible as a Christian is one thing. To assign the Bible to Christians is another. Keep in mind that the Bible is actually two books. Kind of a double-pak, as it were.
Old Testament, New Testament. I have to apologize, for I cannot recall the religion that also shares in using the Old Testament.
Westboro Baptist, Baptist, Lutheran (pick one) Synod, Catholic, Methodist, Universal Unitarian, *et al *.
They all follow the Bible, huh? Which Bible?
Perhaps you’ve heard of Judaism, duffer?
Well, I was trying to keep the Jews out of it, but if someone needs to bring up the fact that the Bible includes Judaism, have at it.
I was hoping my sarcasm wouldn’t drip onto anyone’s shoes. Send me the cleaning bill.
(I really hope you weren’t serious)
Oooh! Oooh! Them whacky Mohamedians! Right? Did I get it? Did I get it?
RickJay: And all relationships are abusive, huh?
How do you label yourself now?
As someone who might be seen as “defending” Islam in this context, can I just clarify what’s going on.
What happens on this board is that some bullshit from the Koran or the Hadiths is quoted as “proof” that Islam is eeeevil and that anyone who follows it is therefore eeeevil too.
Then someone like me, a staunch atheist - because I personally know dozens of Muslims who are thoroughly decent people - tries to inject the thoughts that:
a) there’s similar shit in the Bible/Torah/Upanishat/Book of Mormon/Scientology Book Whatever it’s called etc., and you should not to take it literally, but judge the people on how the majority of them act based on different means of interpretation - cf. The Lord’s Resistance Army not being defined by the eeeevil shit that is in the Bible but rather the fucked up interpretation thereof. As duffer says, “To assign the Bible to Christians is another”. Apply this to Muslims too regarding the Koran.
And that b) while a significant minority of Muslims interpret this in a manner that seems fucked up to us, the majority are normal people just like us who just want to get on with their lives, and you should stop condemning them all based on the terrorists and women-haters.
And you interpret this as Islamophilia.
There’s a subtlety that seems to be missing here.
No. This is an preposterous comparison.
The fact is that most popular religions are every bit as weird, illogical, and destructive as Scientology. Deal with it.
This is what happens when people don’t define their terms: They end up talking past each other and think they’re scoring major points when they’re really restating their opponent’s own ideas.
I was talking about groups. That is, people. That is, not ideas. I was saying that the CoS is abusive, something that has been amply proven to my satisfaction, and taking you to task for saying that other groups are somehow just as bad. If every other group were just as bad, the SDMB sure as shit wouldn’t be allowed to exist. Period.
Then you brought up the statements I quoted above. Completely irrelevant statements, but ones I happen to agree with. I am of the opinion that all religions are bizarre and that they all require a certain degree of delusional behavior to believe in.
But none of that has the slightest to do with this thread. We’re talking about groups, not belief systems. Belief systems can no more be abusive than the color blue or the word ‘syntactic’ can be abusive. No idea, no matter how strange, is capable of abusing someone. Deal, as you so eloquently put it, with it.