Unpopular Opinion

As a Taoist, I don’t believe in any deity and my beliefs boil down to letting people be who they are meant to and want to be and supporting them as much as I can in their personal journeys. That’s not an outdated or childish belief system. You’re conflating Abrahamic religions and mysticism with all religion and you don’t seem to have invested much time in understanding religion as a tool and concept outside of those areas.

Respecting people’s cultures and religion boils down to respecting people - if you believe that people shouldn’t be generally respected then your views are no more developed than that of a selfish child and you are the thing you’re complaining about.

Respect is for people, not ideas or beliefs.

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.

With all the deserving credits to the late and great Terry Pratchett.

Unpopular Take:

Having superstition, religion and pseudo-science persisting and thriving in your society turns into systemic problems eventually. Including Genocide.

Why? Because it teaches people anti-empiricism, emotional "reasoning" and essentialising people. All these are the basis for every reactionary thought, conservative brainrot, religious extremism and eventually denying reality.

Studies back this up. Most of the alt-right are very religious, "skeptic" of science or inclined to mysticism. (Remember Ivermectin and Faith Healing? I do.) This shit even goes back to the OG Nazis in the Third Reich. They loved their mystical stuff and pseudo-science.

Why thing thinking pattern leads down the drain is very simple.There is no fundamental difference between between:

People cant be together because of their sign and
People cant be together because of their skin color

Both times the logic of this methode is the same. No truth, only vibes.

Why we should keep either is beyond me.

Ah, to be 15 again.
Good times. :)

Individual people should be offered initial respect as far as they deserve. You don't have to respect their beliefs but you shouldn't blatantly attack them either.

As an atheist my biggest fear is that I might somehow affect their faith. It's not my place to proselytize atheism nor is it to rip someone's faith away.

Pretty much. I mean if people want to believe and practice various things in their free time, that's fine as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. But religious beliefs should have no place in government or public services.

Internet atheists, or “message board atheist” are the worst. They’ve managed to change the definition of atheism from simply ‘not believing in deities,’ to ‘generalized hatred of anything that doesn’t support their own personal belief.’

(I’m hoping the irony isn’t lost on anyone here, because to me- that sounds an awful lot like hypocrisy and projection)

True atheism is just not believing in god(s). That’s it. Nothing more. And I say this as a true atheist. So to all you Reddit atheists:

How about you get that smug chip removed from your shoulder and lighten up. We’re all allowed the freedom to believe what we feel to be true. And reserve NO authority to lord it over them - pun fucking intended.

This post reads like it was written by a Fedora that came to life thanks to an incel's wish.

Yeah especially pseudo science. Like I saw a video on isntagram a while back of a Latin American family in the US whose cat was sick and instead of taking it to the vet they were just rubbing an egg on it? Because apparently the egg will soak up the "bad energy" and make the cat better? And all the comments were telling them to just take it to a fucking vet, and saying what they were doing was animal abuse and the poster was just saying stuff like "This is a traditional remedy, you need to respect our beleifs" no. No we don't.

Here fucking here, I'm so tired of tiptoeing around Christianity and vaccine ignorance.

We should respect the other fellow's religion, but in the same sense and to a similar extent that we respect his belief that his children are smart and his wife is beautiful.

Respect the human for being an individual human with their own beliefs and ideals.

If they can't respect the same from you, fuck em.

Yes, you're correct. I'm a theist, but I 100% agree that magical thinking and superstition don't have a place in modern society.

The belief that a dead body came back to life and floated into the sky is delusional, and only not seen as mental illness because of its commonality.

Belief that commitment to Eastern practices will let masters hover in the air or turn invisible should be relegated to antiquity.

Beliefs regarding the unknown and immeasurable are one thing, but pretty much every popular religion involves beliefs regarding the measurable that are clearly false, and for it to be socially acceptable to hold those clearly false beliefs opens the door for other magical thinking beliefs like the idea there's lizard people in skin suits running the world or that aliens built the pyramids or that the earth is flat or that drinking magic water can cure cancer.

Society is struggling with its relationship to truth in the age of social media, and I put much of the blame on religion in fostering the environment for BS to thrive.

We really should be less tolerant of beliefs that actively deny measurable reality.

People are ignorant by default.

You have to educate them along and let them choose their own path. Sometimes they wonder off the path of ideal development. It's basic statistics.

We should demand that people contend with reality on a factual basis

You can stand at an open door and beg them to walk through it but you can't shove them.

We shouldn't be coddling people who profess beliefs that are demonstrably false, simply because their feelings might get hurt.

Meritocracy is dangerous. You cannot punish people for stunted development, it does no good. You can really only reward them for developing and contributing to the well being of society.

This is psychology 101 level stuff. If you want a society based on science, then use the we science have.

I think that often, people use the word respect in a different way when it comes to magical thinking. Religious people often use the word to mean exempt from examination, or beyond reproach. While it's undoubtedly disrespectful to subject a person to an assault on their beliefs for no good reason, when those beliefs begin to play a role in decisions that will affect others, they can and should be challenged; people oughtn't be shocked to learn that if they bring their beliefs into the public discourse around a policy decision, they'll be subject to the same level of scrutiny as any other way of thinking or approaching a problem.

Well, you've definitely proven that dumb religious idiots, with the usual PRATT arguments, are here in the fediverse, at least, based on this comment section.

You can't humiliate someone into changing their mind, especially something so critical to their identity. Minds are changed slowly, with love. With conversations and questions that make them think about it later. If you dunk on someone, they'll just remember how mad you made them what an asshole you are. If you tactfully ask them questions that expose their own hypocrisy, you might just trigger a shower thought epiphany.

Another unpopular opinion: despite being popular, religious bigotry is still bigotry.

Amen!

😏

How is respect in this context any different than tolerance?

I think dismissing people based on their beliefs is essentially saying I should only value the opinions(tolerate) of those who agree with me. Taken to the extreme that could easily lead to anyone with 'bad' beliefs being forcibly reeducated. Sound familiar?