During the past two weeks I happened to land on the Southern Poverty Law Center webpage, in which, among all the information that one can get regarding civil rights, there’s a special place for hate groups. I think we all like to hear about hate groups, not because we like them, but because it’s something we can all agree in disliking. Alone in California, there are 84 hate groups and, you know what? I’m glad to find that none of those is an atheist or agnostic group.
Of course, why should I expect otherwise? We are rational people who rely on evidence and the scientific method before making a statement. It’s hard, with all those characteristics, to have a mentality that allows hatred towards a group of people just for being different to us.
Predictably, believers, (especially christians and muslims) can not say the same.
Among all the hate groups that are out there, check out how many are primarily christian, jewish or muslim groups.
Jewish Defense League ------------------ General Hate
Traditional Values Coalition -------------Anti-GayTony Alamo Christian Ministries -------- General Hate
Nation of Islam --------------------------Black Separatist
Tradition in Action ----------------------Radical Traditionalist Catholic
Chick Publications -----------------------General Hate
OMNI Christian Book Club --------------Radical Traditionalist Catholic
Abiding Truth Ministries ---------------- Anti-Gay
These are mainly religious hate groups, but many of the others usually have a religious affiliation, specially the anti-gay and Ku Klux Klan.
It would be unfair to label every religious person as a hater just for believing in a god. There are many believers who really do as they say and are full of love and comprehension. But it’s also unfair to think that christians, muslims and believers in general are morally better than non-believers. Moreover, by believing in a god and its divine commandments there is a lot of room available for hatred, bigotry, discrimination and incomprehension, in all levels, both for the peasant as for the pope. There’s where the hypocrisy lies, in which those beliefs are presented to us as the only way (according to each of them) to reach god and be a better and loving person, but have more chance to ignite hatred than the staunchest atheism.
While sometimes it can be hard to have the sensation of living surrounded by believers who are eager to look at you as a bad and immoral person, it’s reassuring and nice to find out that those who share one’s belief are very unlike to hate or discriminate against a different person.
Oh this is so true. I hate how they pick an choose their words to sound all holy. "We're pro-family" which means we're "anti-anything that isn't mom, dad, and kids."
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the gay marriage issue, it pisses me off when they say they're "protecting marriage". Why would it need protection? It sounds as if gay marriages were allowed those conservatards would start marrying people of their same gender. Pure intolerance, but disguised as "love".
ReplyDeleteIs simple, when it comes to religions facts are unrequired; is funny to see how hate-speech, and etc works so good for them. The worst thing is, in my opinion, that people just swallow everything they say, without asking why or for proofs most of the time. Sometimes it seems that we are still in the middle ages.
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