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Aspergers and Religion

I've been working with my therapist on this, but I still can't make the connection.

Religion has been responsible for the bullying of gays leading to suicides, the justification to limit progress, keep blacks segregated and enslaved, and often makes people cruel to one another using them not living Biblical lifestyles as the excuse.

Also, why is it taken personally to make fun of a particular belief? That isn't calling the person who believes it names or discriminating against them. It is just saying that the belief is a lot to swallow and seems to be rather silly and unfounded. If someone believed there were floating tea cups in space or unicorns flying around somewhere, wouldn't most people laugh at that?
 
Granta_Omega said:
If you can find another Atheist who believes I was disrespectful, than I will consider it. However, I think people were just angry that I said something they didn't like about religion and played the disrespectful card instead of refuting it.
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Me as well. I am not religious either, and I have been around religion all my life. I grew up in a heavily religious family and just graduated from a Catholic high school, so I'm sure I've experienced far more religion than you ever have. I didn't agree with all the prayer and church services and Theology classes we took, but I was able to get used to them, even if I did find it all ridiculous. Is my opinion of religion the same as yours? Quite a bit, yes. But I've learned to develop a tolerance for it. Atheists who attack the beliefs of Christians are just as bad as Christians who attack the non-belief of atheists.

And I consider it offensive to ridicule them because people's beliefs, especially religious beliefs, are very much a part of who they are, just like one's race is a part of who they are. Do you find it acceptable to ridicule somebody because of their race?
 
buckyboy14 said:
Me as well. I am not religious either, and I have been around religion all my life. I grew up in a heavily religious family and just graduated from a Catholic high school, so I'm sure I've experienced far more religion than you ever have. I didn't agree with all the prayer and church services and Theology classes we took, but I was able to get used to them, even if I did find it all ridiculous. Is my opinion of religion the same as yours? Quite a bit, yes. But I've learned to develop a tolerance for it. Atheists who attack the beliefs of Christians are just as bad as Christians who attack the non-belief of atheists.
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So are you saying you basically just went along with it because you were a minority? That doesn't seem very admirable to me. Did you tell them you were an Atheist in Catholic school, or did you go along with it out of fear of being expelled?

Again, attacking a belief is not the same as attacking the believer. Religious beliefs are used to make life decisions that involve dictating how other people live, and they affect the rest of us. So that's why in my opinion we can't just leave religious people alone. They are constantly holding up their signs about how god hates fags and telling people their beliefs are what determine whether or not they are moral. They are trying to stop advancement of science and global warming studies as well as voting for those who want to discriminate against people in businesses based on religious beliefs.
 
Granta_Omega said:
I've been working with my therapist on this, but I still can't make the connection.

Religion has been responsible for the bullying of gays leading to suicides, the justification to limit progress, keep blacks segregated and enslaved, and often makes people cruel to one another using them not living Biblical lifestyles as the excuse.
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Religion has not been responsible for these things, people have been responsible for these things and have used religion as a justification. It's not much different from the people who do stuff like say something rude, then say "sorry, Asperger's," without trying to learn to not be a jerk, as though having Asperger's is a "get out of jail free" card for social tact (or lack thereof).

Let's look at this logically:

1. Person A is a relentless bully. He is also atheist.
2. Person B is also an atheist.
3. Is Person B a bully?

Going by the logic that you're using to justify your behavior regarding religion and those who are theist, then yes, Person B is a bully. That's faulty logic, though, because being an atheist does not have any bearing on how an individual chooses to act. Person B is no more or less likely to be a bully, just because Person A is and they share a philosophical viewpoint.

Also, why is it taken personally to make fun of a particular belief? That isn't calling the person who believes it names or discriminating against them. It is just saying that the belief is a lot to swallow and seems to be rather silly and unfounded. If someone believed there were floating tea cups in space or unicorns flying around somewhere, wouldn't most people laugh at that?
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Making fun of anyone for anything is unacceptable behavior. You made fun of people, when you wrote this line:

Try to imagine it from a perspective of someone who walks around being surrounded by people living under a delusion that they have to try and personalize the universe and nature all the time.
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People took it personally, because you said that theists "live under a delusion." In effect, you called a number of people "delusional." That is very much a personal attack. There is a difference between saying, "I didn't agree with the tenets of the church I grew up in, and don't believe in god," and saying "people who believe in god are delusional."

Regardless, though, there is a time and place for venting your frustrations about religion in general, and engaging in debate over the merits of certain religious texts. This thread, however, is not the place for it.
 
Well, no offense, but if you are an Atheist, your only option is to believe that those who believe are living in a delusion. I guess you could simply just not say it, but then that is basically just refraining from stating what you believe in order to not upset others.
 
Granta_Omega said:
Pertaining to religion.... this is a good one.
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Because I have a sense of humor I did think that video was funny. I also don't believe in forcing religion onto anyone either. If you learn anything from all of this, it would be nice if you would accept people for who they are. Actually, what you have been doing (trying to get people to justify their religious beliefs) is kind of like the video except in reverse - you're trying to change other people's way of thinking to match yours and if they don't comply, you insult them instead. How's that working for you?
 
Well, I simply feel as if people are saying that the Atheist's only options are to either just to shut up and respect that we're a minority and let religious people win or just say you don't believe but don't elaborate on why.
 
Granta_Omega said:
Religious beliefs are used to make life decisions that involve dictating how other people live, and they affect the rest of us. So that's why in my opinion we can't just leave religious people alone. They are constantly holding up their signs about how god hates fags and telling people their beliefs are what determine whether or not they are moral. They are trying to stop advancement of science and global warming studies as well as voting for those who want to discriminate against people in businesses based on religious beliefs.
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Exactly. The lengths Christians go to to discriminate against others and defend and uphold said discrimination makes the group practically indefensible. I wish it weren't so, but it is. Sorry. You can protest 'til you're blue in the face that they aren't real Christians, but whether you like it or not, that's the face of Christianity today. The minority within the group who actually are good, honest, fair minded people should call themselves something else and disassociate themselves from the bigots completely.
 
Granta_Omega said:
Well, I simply feel as if people are saying that the Atheist's only options are to either just to shut up and respect that we're a minority and let religious people win or just say you don't believe but don't elaborate on why.
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Actually, there is a third option. It's to come here and accept that people are different and all deserve respect, and religious debate IS NOT TOLERATED.
 
Regardless of your views, please at least follow the rules of the web site. Most of us here do not want this thread shut down.

Here is the rule in question:

Regarding religious debates, we are not allowing any threads to continue to that debate religion. If a thread regarding religion or spiritual beliefs turns into a debate it will be closed and actions may be taken against those involved.

This is a community for autism and we would like to keep the concentration on that. Letting known topics such as these spiral out of control takes away from everyone on the forum.
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dudeman said:
Exactly. The lengths Christians go to to discriminate against others and defend and uphold said discrimination makes the group practically indefensible. I wish it weren't so, but it is. Sorry. You can protest 'til you're blue in the face that they aren't real Christians, but whether you like it or not, that's the face of Christianity today. The minority within the group who actually are good, honest, fair minded people should call themselves something else and disassociate themselves from the bigots completely.
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And that is why I have disassociated myself from the Catholic church because I found some of their beliefs not to be consistent with the Bible. I do, however, still believe in God. I never knew one Atheist until I came to this site. Honestly, I felt in the minority being a religious person (there are A LOT of Atheists here), but I accepted people for their beliefs and took the situation as an opportunity to learn something. I wish that some Atheists (you know who you are) would do the same.
 
Granta_Omega said:
Someone really shouldn't be posting a thread about religion if such a stupid rule exists.
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But you continue to bite... and end up here in this thread?

For sake of the atmosphere, either add something constructive or just leave this thread.
 
I'm actually not debating the philosophical views of religion. I was talking about the reason I dislike religion because of the harm it does. The rules, regulations, dogmatic lifestyles, and the bullying and hypocrisy. It also allows sane and rational people to believe what only lunatics could believe on their own.
 
Granta_Omega said:
I'm actually not debating the philosophical views of religion. I was talking about the reason I dislike religion because of the harm it does. The rules, regulations, dogmatic lifestyles, and the bullying and hypocrisy. It also allows sane and rational people to believe what only lunatics could believe on their own.
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And yet again, you refer to people as lunatics, because they have a different view?

Perhaps if you tried to be less insulting, it would contribute a bit more here.
 
I didn't refer to believers as lunatics, but I actually called them sane and rational people.

They believe what has been written down. Beliefs thought up by either lunatics, those trying to sell books, or establish political goals.
 
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