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Sunday, September 26, 2010

Religious Privilege

Am I missing something? Some religious people seem to think that their belief systems should have a privileged status in society and I can't think of a single reason why. In light of the recent fiasco with the Florida preacher wanting to burn Qurans on September 11th, many Muslims were outraged that this might happen, and are now pressing the UN to make "all forms of offense against religions" illegal.  Others are calling for the preacher to be arrested and his church permanently shut down. Now I don't agree with his reasons for burning the Quran, but do I care that he's doing it? No, and why should I? The Quran is absolutely meaningless to me. It's a piece of literature from another culture that I haven't read and don't really ever plan on reading it. I can understand why Muslims would be upset by this, but to have the man arrested, and make free speech a crime? Grow some balls.
On a similar note, an Australian University lawyer's job is in danger, as some people took offense to his smoking of the bible and Quran. He didn't hurt anyone or damage anyone else's property so what's the fuss about? Religions have been shitting on everyone else's front doorsteps for millennia, and now that some individuals are deciding that enough is enough, the religious are screaming bloody murder. I challenge every single person out there reading this, to try and think of one single reason why religious belief deserves to be exempt from criticism. On top of that, I cannot think of any reason why anyone should have the right to not be offended, and why should causing offense be illegal?

I would never demand that people respect my individual values and beliefs, only that people respect my right to hold them. I would never demand that someone be jailed for desecrating something of great importance to me (like reason itself). In fact, every day I am encountered by desecrations of reason, they're called creationists. I find their sheer stupidity quite offensive, as they reflect badly on the competence of the human race. However, I am all for their right to believe whatever anti-intellectual vomit they want to believe in, as long as I have the right to be able to criticize them for believing it.

12 comments:

  1. Although to be fair (and this is as much of their side as I can take), burning their books isn't a criticism, it's just an expression of disgust. And an appropriate one, at that. Nobody's going to care if you take a copy of Moby Dick into the street and burn it while chanting "Mark Twain was the greatest author who ever lived!" But as soon as you burn a religious book, look out for the offense police because they'll whine like it's nobody's business.

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  3. DM said...

    "add comment moderation to your BS"

    No.

    =)

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  6. I'm Dave Mabus!

    Derp da derp, ta tiddly tumb! Stupid stupid stupid i am! Here's a link to a picture that has no relevance to the discussion topic!! http://zef.me/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/funny-cat.jpg

    YOU DIE TONIGHT!!! (that is, if you were involved in an accident or something.... because i can't actually do anything from thousands of miles away...)

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  7. I've dabbled in a little Koranage. And I reckon it would be in your best interests to rattle through a Muslim's holy text. It's not that big a book and is very simple reading. That way at least when you criticize Islam you can say "Hey, I've read the book". Just an idea.

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  8. My criticisms of Islam have nothing to do with scripture or doctrine. The Koran is extremely far down my list of books to read. It's so far down that it isn't even on the list, just like the Book of Mormon.

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  9. But your criticisms of Judaism and Christianity have so much to do with the Bible? Why the distinction? Bump both the Koran and the BOM up the list I reckon. Then you'll be able to fully grab a hold of where these people are coming from.

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  10. Most of my knowledge of the Babble comes from when I was a believer. I don't actually read it anymore, cept when I'm looking something up.

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  11. ^ i am SO calling it the Babble from now on. How did i not figure that out for myself?

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