The way you phrased that is kind of confusing. I’m fine with religious people, assuming they don’t use their religion as an excuse to hate or promote violence. For example, I think many anti religious people think of all Christians as believing in a type of Christianity similar or the same as what the Westboro Baptist church preached. In reality, many Christian denominations are accepting of lgbtq+ people as well as any race or ethnicity. Even the catholic church took a more progressive stance on gay people a few years back.

I struggle with the idea that being part of a religion means you support the negatives without acknowledging the positives. For example, the catholic church has a horrible track record with child abuse. Sentiments I hear accuse catholics of loving and supporting pedophiles. But the catholic church also funds thousands of hospitals, clinics, food banks, orphanages and schools. They were also one of the few institutions setting up and running programs for needy people historically. Can someone hate aspects of the institution while supporting others and still be considered moral? Surely if you were to poll catholics, almost none would condone acts of child abuse. But, they would all support helping the needy. Is it reasonable to hold all members accountable for the horrible acts of a few? Maybe, maybe not, I really don’t know.

That’s an excellent point and not something I or the majority of commenter have taken into consideration. I’m really curious to know if any of the major detractors in these comments have more good will to nontheistic religions. Considering the numbers of comments that reference people being stupid for believing in a fake being.

Yeah that’s pretty much what I’ve gathered from this thread and conversations I’ve had. Both sides see themselves as morally and intellectually superior. I don’t see much willing cohesion being possible on the extreme sides of either. Luckily the majority of people seem to fall in the middle.

I appreciate the comment but don’t worry about my feelings. I know how divisive a topic this is and I recognize the platform I’m asking on will have a pretty specific slant one way. That’s all fine by me and down arrows on the internet won’t effect my mental state whatsoever. I know/knew how strongly most feel on this and in many cases justifiably. I was/am curious about how far people think is acceptable. I obsess over understanding how “things” work, usually that starts and stops with physical devices/machines. However, I’ve been working more and more on trying to understand people and how they work, outside of my personal social circle. The prevailing opinion from this thread as well as in person conversations is pretty simple. Those who have a disdain for the religious view themselves as being morally and intellectually superior to the religious. Its an ironic paradox because the equally far other side of the spectrum seems to have the exact same belief about the non-religious. Although, particularly radical religious people are known to genocide, unlike any proposed thoughts stated here. I know the vast majority of people fall into camps somewhere between those two extremes. Sometimes its just interesting to see where the ends are.

Posted this to hear and attempt to understand genuine opinions. This fella has explained the way he thinks pretty extensively on the subject. I find it interesting.

My stance is anyone using any belief system to excuse hate is wrong.

He said yes

Solid

That’s close to how I feel.

Understood.

If you genuinely believe its child abuse, do you think legislation should be created to outlaw it?

That’s reasonable. Enemy of my enemy and all that jazz.

That’s honest

That’s fair. You’re morally and intellectually superior but you don’t HATE anyone. That’s been the general consensus I’ve seen so far.

That’s consistent with all the other comments you’ve left.

I value yours, I dont really care what you think of mine lol.

Just to be clear, I’m an agnostic (likely atheist) liberal democrat, mechanical engineer and consider myself a pragmatic person. I’m trying to understand opinions and consider how they clash with my personal experiences in life so far. I don’t necessarily think religious people are inherently bad or good. Do you have a specific stance on why someone would choose to engage with a religion? Based on other comments, it seems like you think religious people just want a reason to feel superior to others. Would you say thats accurate?

That’s an interesting point of view.

I’m not a religious person. I had a long argument with a friend about the subject. I also spend a bit too much time reading reddit and lemmy comments. You can choose to think the question is in bad faith but I’m just trying to have a discussion and understand how people think on the subject.