# Not Racism... Religionism? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 17, 2024, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238 "2024-01-17T20:41:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/21 "2024-01-18T14:58:10Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > What do you call my take on organized religion, which is that the advantages of organized religion accrue mainly (or entirely) to the organizers? “Cynicism.” ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/22 "2024-01-18T15:08:58Z")
There are many forms of intolerance which have to do with religion, but they don’t seem to fall into one neat category. Those who are, for lack of a better word, anti-faith (belief in anything other than provable facts makes you at best an idiot, at worst an enemy). Those who are particularly anti-Christian while not in favor of any other faith either. Could apply to other singled-out religions. Those who belong to one faith but are bigoted against other faiths, or perhaps just one other faith (anti-Christian Muslims, anti-Muslim Christians, etc.) Those who hate co-religionists who open their eggs on the small end instead of the divinely ordained large end. It is possible each of these might require its own name. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/23 "2024-01-18T15:32:59Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Sectarianism = my religion is right, yours sucks Though isn’t this about sects within a religion (hence the name) not different religions. So it is used in places like Northern Ireland to describe prejudice and violence between Protestants and Catholics, or in Iraq between Sunnis and Shiites but not to describe prejudice between religions. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/24 "2024-01-18T15:33:05Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > instead of the divinely ordained large end. As it was Jonathan Swift who thaught us about the bitter factional dispute raging between those who break open their eggs at the little end (Little-Endians) and those who choose the big end (Big-Endians) the right word would be Swifties or Anti-Swifties, I guess. Oh, wait… You got the method wrong anyway, it is the short end that is [divinely](https://youtu.be/KVic8sNVjVQ?t=87) ordained. Or was it sunny side up? ETA: The word I believe ~~the OP~~ **Cardigan** is looking for is **radical humanist**. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/25 "2024-01-18T15:40:17Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > You got the method wrong anyway, it is the short end that is [divinely](https://youtu.be/KVic8sNVjVQ?t=87) ordained Divine was obviously a dangerous heretic. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/26 "2024-01-18T15:42:38Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > You got the method wrong anyway, it is the short end that is [divinely](https://youtu.be/KVic8sNVjVQ?t=87) ordained. Or was it sunny side up? Paging @Yookeroo … ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/27 "2024-01-18T17:19:24Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Secularism = play with your beads or bang your head on the floor all you like, but stay out of our way. I don’t think this works. It is possible to be a secularist and not be against religions which don’t try to control other people. The term I’ve heard is “anti-theist” which says that all religion is not just wrong but harmful. Even Unitarians. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/28 "2024-01-18T17:33:30Z")
Famously and influentially: > [@](#): > > _Religious_ suffering is, at one and the same time, the _expression_ of real suffering and a _protest_ against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the _opium_ of the people. > > The abolition of religion as the _illusory_ happiness of the people is the demand for their _real_ happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to _give up a condition that requires illusions_. The criticism of religion is, therefore, _in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears_ of which religion is the _halo_. ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Igor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/29 "2024-01-18T23:04:56Z")
Within denominations, anti-clericalism can refer to the sentiment that God does not speak to or direct only those whom the denomination has ordained. It recognizes that the laity has a place in denominational structure or function. IOW, anti-clericalism challenges the assumption that only those ordained posses authority in the denomination. ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/30 "2024-01-18T23:55:46Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > One calls them a cardiganist. It’s for non religious people who assume those who are relgious automatically are oppressive or anti technology. Cardiganist…you silly guy Dan ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/31 "2024-01-19T00:17:02Z")
Glad you liked it. 😃 But I’m a gal. 😊 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/32 "2024-01-19T00:33:59Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Those who are, for lack of a better word, anti-faith (belief in anything other than provable facts makes you at best an idiot, at worst an enemy). Or it could mean that religionists are somtimes indoctrinated. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/33 "2024-01-19T01:13:09Z")
Do not understand what you mean. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/34 "2024-01-19T01:28:45Z")
Some of us opposed to the intrusion of religion in social, legal and political circles take into consideration that some religionists have been indoctrinated by those same forces. That doesn’t make them idiots(or worse). It just makes them human. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/35 "2024-01-19T01:33:40Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > > [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > > > Secularism = play with your beads or bang your head on the floor all you like, but stay out of our way. > > I don’t think this works. It is possible to be a secularist and not be against religions which don’t try to control other people. The bit you quoted is literally exactly that: a secularist who is not against religions, as long as they don’t try to control other people. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/36 "2024-01-19T01:33:44Z")
Just for completeness there’s “anti-ecclesiastical” which is anti-church. Seems like you’d hear that more in a society where so many say “I’m not against religion, just organized religion.” ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/37 "2024-01-19T01:36:05Z")
Monkey see monkey do, When humans decided it wasn’t a good thing for humans to model themselves after other humans, they created God. Thats not to say that God doesn’t exist, but we had to create a version we could comprehend. Religion is more about giving ourselves an identity we can carry throughout our lives and be happy with it. A person who doesn’t like themselves doesn’t always behave well. Obviously not everyone needs this but there are a lot of us who do. ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/38 "2024-01-19T01:36:56Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Glad you liked it. 😃 But I’m a gal. 😊 Still clever, and I’d like to imagine I’m nearly as clever. Thanks Dan ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/39 "2024-01-19T01:43:54Z")
I tend to use “bigotry” for most of these. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238/40 "2024-01-19T01:52:00Z")
Antidisestablishmentarianism = let’s keep government subsidies flowing to the Church of England. We do so many good things, and put up with so many bad vicar/knicker jokes [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-racism-religionism/996238.md?page=3)