Applying the crimes of Christianity to all religions is simply another type of Christian chauvenism. By asserting that "religion" consists of only Christianity you both support its supremacy, since it is already dominant and not threatened by your rhetoric, and help it denounce other religions as "demonic", since smaller faiths are always being threatened by its dominance.
Who does this? Pretty much every western Anti-theist I've ever talked to. All they do is compile all religions into an amorphous blob they can throw stones at. As though Christianity is in any way similar to, for example, the various religions of indigenous Americans.
There are thousands of religions that are currently practiced. Yes there are many that are reactionary, even many small ones, but many are not and none are as intertwined with reactionary political structures as Christianity is. Just because you think all religions are wrong and evil does not mean they are, and its ignorant and chauvinistic to lump literally all of them together.
So 10% of the planet, 800,000,000 people's faiths, arent worth considering in the category of "religion"?
Im not against critiquing religion, I do so regularly. But Puff wasnt doing that, they were responding to a post criticizing Christianity by saying "all religion is a death cult". Its reductive and annoying.
statistically insignificant proportion of global religious
They are still religions. When you say "religion is evil" that includes all religions. If your critique is about the most popular religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc) then simply specify that.
I d also question whether American religions are actually all clean.
Certainly saying "all Indigenous American faiths are good" is pretty reductive, there are a lot of them after all. At the same time saying "all religion is bad" includes all indigenous religions and I guarantee the people who say that do not actually know anything about them all.
Religion is a really complicated subject, and anti-theists, by the very nature of being anti-religion, really need to over simplify that extremely complex topic to think that they're right in hating "religion".
Oh I absolutely agree in the necessity of state atheism. Dont get me wrong, Im not advocating for religions maintaining their political structures, I hate christianity mainly because it exists as a political entity. I simply think that Anti-theism is reactionary in its own right, and its far more damaging to faiths that are not politically dominant than ones that are.
I’d also question whether American religions are actually all clean.
Those religions exist in the context of peoples who suffer genocide at the hands of colonizers. Whether they are clean or not is largely irrelevant as long as they continue to live in settler-colonies. It doesn't matter if the religions themselves are reactionary or not. Do you hold an investigation towards every victim of police violence to determine whether those victims are actually "good people?"
Anti-theists always ignore the thousands of Indigenous religions that exist. Either they glob on their critiques of larger faiths like Christianity, Islam, etc.; or they outright ignore that those are even religions.
All of them, huh? So there was never a single group of indigenous peoples of the Americas who ever practised warfare, misogyny, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice in the name of religion? Not even once?
"That religion was no angel." What is this Reddit tier response?
Every single Indigenous religion is innocent in the grand scheme of things just like every victim of police murder is innocent in the grand scheme of thing. They don't need to be perfect. It doesn't matter if the victims are petty criminals or smoke meth or refused to pay taxes. They're victims of the pigs and that is enough.
If you want to shit on Christianity for being behind the genocide of Indigenous peoples, be my guest. But to lump a religion with multiple genocides conducted in its name with the religions of the people being genocided by that same religion is absolutely heinous. Literally the same people trying to say George Floyd shouldn't be mourned because he was a petty criminal.
I didn't attack any individual muslims, rather the ideology itself. It's insanity to suggest that the doctrines of Islam are not homophobic and misogynistic.
even if it appears to be so in their sacred texts, because not a single religion in the world follows their sacred texts to a T
Right, so then what's the point in having the religion at all? Do you think God and Allah would cool with people cherry-picking the book to follow the parts you like and disregard the parts you don't? Just throw the whole archaic thing out.
Applying the crimes of Christianity to all religions is simply another type of Christian chauvenism. By asserting that "religion" consists of only Christianity you both support its supremacy, since it is already dominant and not threatened by your rhetoric, and help it denounce other religions as "demonic", since smaller faiths are always being threatened by its dominance.
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Who does this? Pretty much every western Anti-theist I've ever talked to. All they do is compile all religions into an amorphous blob they can throw stones at. As though Christianity is in any way similar to, for example, the various religions of indigenous Americans.
There are thousands of religions that are currently practiced. Yes there are many that are reactionary, even many small ones, but many are not and none are as intertwined with reactionary political structures as Christianity is. Just because you think all religions are wrong and evil does not mean they are, and its ignorant and chauvinistic to lump literally all of them together.
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So 10% of the planet, 800,000,000 people's faiths, arent worth considering in the category of "religion"?
Im not against critiquing religion, I do so regularly. But Puff wasnt doing that, they were responding to a post criticizing Christianity by saying "all religion is a death cult". Its reductive and annoying.
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Please tell me all about your 'smaller faith' and how innocent it is.
How about every single religion practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Americas?
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They are still religions. When you say "religion is evil" that includes all religions. If your critique is about the most popular religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc) then simply specify that.
Certainly saying "all Indigenous American faiths are good" is pretty reductive, there are a lot of them after all. At the same time saying "all religion is bad" includes all indigenous religions and I guarantee the people who say that do not actually know anything about them all.
Religion is a really complicated subject, and anti-theists, by the very nature of being anti-religion, really need to over simplify that extremely complex topic to think that they're right in hating "religion".
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Oh I absolutely agree in the necessity of state atheism. Dont get me wrong, Im not advocating for religions maintaining their political structures, I hate christianity mainly because it exists as a political entity. I simply think that Anti-theism is reactionary in its own right, and its far more damaging to faiths that are not politically dominant than ones that are.
Those religions exist in the context of peoples who suffer genocide at the hands of colonizers. Whether they are clean or not is largely irrelevant as long as they continue to live in settler-colonies. It doesn't matter if the religions themselves are reactionary or not. Do you hold an investigation towards every victim of police violence to determine whether those victims are actually "good people?"
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Ok thats one Indigenous religion thats bad. Now what about the rest?
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Anti-theists always ignore the thousands of Indigenous religions that exist. Either they glob on their critiques of larger faiths like Christianity, Islam, etc.; or they outright ignore that those are even religions.
All of them, huh? So there was never a single group of indigenous peoples of the Americas who ever practised warfare, misogyny, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice in the name of religion? Not even once?
"That religion was no angel." What is this Reddit tier response?
Every single Indigenous religion is innocent in the grand scheme of things just like every victim of police murder is innocent in the grand scheme of thing. They don't need to be perfect. It doesn't matter if the victims are petty criminals or smoke meth or refused to pay taxes. They're victims of the pigs and that is enough.
If you want to shit on Christianity for being behind the genocide of Indigenous peoples, be my guest. But to lump a religion with multiple genocides conducted in its name with the religions of the people being genocided by that same religion is absolutely heinous. Literally the same people trying to say George Floyd shouldn't be mourned because he was a petty criminal.
False analogies. Don't put words in others' mouths.
Oh, is that a threat?
No... It's good advice.
Fuck off
Excellent argument
Fuck off
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I didn't attack any individual muslims, rather the ideology itself. It's insanity to suggest that the doctrines of Islam are not homophobic and misogynistic.
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Right, so then what's the point in having the religion at all? Do you think God and Allah would cool with people cherry-picking the book to follow the parts you like and disregard the parts you don't? Just throw the whole archaic thing out.
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