No one is free from criticism. Harmful ideas should be condemned, when they are demonstrably harmful. But theist beliefs are such a vast range and diversity of ideas, some harmful, some useful, some healing, some vivifying, and still others having served as potent drivers of movements for justice; that to lump all theist religious belief into one category and attack the whole of it, only demonstrates your ignorance of theology, and is in fact bigotry.
By saying that religious and superstitious beliefs should be disrespected, or otherwise belittling, or stigmatizing religion and supernatural beliefs as a whole, you have already established the first level on the “Pyramid of Hate”, as well as the first of the “10 Stages of Genocide.”
If your religion is atheism, that’s perfectly valid. If someone is doing something harmful with a religious belief as justification, that specific belief should be challenged. But if you’re crossing the line into bigotry, you’re as bad as the very people you’re condemning.
Antitheism is a form of supremacy in and of itself.
"In other words, it is quite clear from the writings of the “four horsemen” that “new atheism” has little to do with atheism or any serious intellectual examination of the belief in God and everything to do with hatred and power.
Indeed, “new atheism” is the ideological foregrounding of liberal imperialism whose fanatical secularism extends the racist logic of white supremacy. It purports to be areligious, but it is not. It is, in fact, the twin brother of the rabid Christian conservatism which currently feeds the Trump administration’s destructive policies at home and abroad – minus all the biblical references."
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/5/4/the-resurrection-of-new-atheism/
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So, i noticed that a lot of what you mentioned has been a European thing. I grew up in the US in a city that is majority black. Because I’m white I got int a lot of fights. So, my dad moved me to a southern baptist private school.
My new school the mascot was a confederate soldier. Our symbol was a confederate flag. Our basketball gym had confederate flags 2 stories tall painted on the walls. They used the Abeka book system, which teaches young earth creationism, and a generally more extreme version of American exceptionalism among other problematic views. I took bible for a school credit. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that there were only 3 black people in the entire school k-12.
The Ku Klux Klan is also a christian organization. I had a relative that cheated on his wife. The KKK showed up and beat him so bad that he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. They fancied themselves a Christian morality police. Obviously that was a long time ago, but if conservatives in the US have their way anything is possible.
When I was homeless and drug addicted. I used to have to beg for money, and occasionally you’d get someone that would tell you to “go ask a church for help. They’ll help ya”. Well, I have asked churches for help. I asked a few mosques too. Hell, I actually had a mosque give me some food one time. But of all the churches I asked and admittedly it was over 10 which is a super small sample size. Not a single one ever helped and 1 was kind enough to offer to call the police on me if I didn’t leave immediately.
Down here if you go to church and you’re white it’s like a secret handshake that says “I at least hate gay people but probably black people too”. I’d also like to point out that I’m painting a pretty broad stroke with that statement. Obviously not ALL christians in the southern US are racist homophobic bigots, but I’d bet my life that over half are. I’d bet 2 toes and a finger it’s close to 75%.
Churches down here promote homophobia. That’s almost all churches down here. It’s so rare to find a church down here that’s ok with the LGBTQ community that when one pops up they advertise it. They’ll say something like “Everyone is welcome regardless of race or sexual orientation”. Kinda weird that even has to be said in 2023 but here we are.
Here is a local version of what I mean. https://pilgrimuccbham.org/about/
In the end I can’t speak to the history of the church. I mean I could, but is Saturday and I have kids to feed. I feel though that the recent past and present right around me is bad enough.
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I’m just going to say that as far as what you covered in that last comment there’s not really anything I disagree with. I only have one small criticism, and honestly it’s something that I’m sure you would have gotten to in a deeper explanation.
As far as eugenics and the negative side of Darwinism goes. I feel that science as an idea is free to change and expand. But, religion as a belief is far more rigid and set. This allows us to come back later and correct the science, but not the religion.
But yeah. I basically agree with the other things.