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Not everyone has the time, ability or inclination to be a regular on Barbelith. I'm dealing with chronic illness and at the moment it's worse and I'm having trouble reading at all.
Anyway, the environment I was referring to was that particular thread. I haven't noticed an anti-religious bias in the Temple elsewhere so much as a marked absence of discussion of religion (other than paganism and magic) in a forum where you'd expect it, which is a different matter. I haven't read every post in the Temple going back for months or years or whatever people seem to be expecting.
The thread was called "My Religious Backstory", but the first post focused most strongly on getting away from religion, and this seemed to be where the thread generally was going. Several commenters - and I'm sorry but I can't skim much, my eyes are fairly bad today and I don't find the Barbelith format the easiest to read, so you're only getting one - were very harsh about religion in general and those who believe in it. For instance, sn00p (whom I'm not trying to get at personally) said:
I just want to scream in their faces, ARE YOU STUPID, I GREW OUT OF THIS AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME AS SANTA, YOUR ABSTRACT IDEAS (as nice and interesting as they may be), MEAN NOTHING, NOTHING, THERE ARE FACTS IN THE WORLD, NON SUBJECTIVE, NON RELATIVE FACTS, LIKE THE MONITOR INFRONT OF YOUR FACE, WHAT YOU BELIEVE MEANS NOTHING, TRY AND BELIEVE THE MONITOR ISN'T THERE, IS IT STILL THERE?
and repeatedly referred to people with religious beliefs as "stupid". Overall, yes, this does not make for an environment which feels welcoming to those who actually follow a religion, rather than having decided that anyone with any intelligence should scrap it.
Nor am I particularly reassured by the suggestions that I am after "dogmatism and uncritical acceptance of said dogma" or "a place where organised religion could be discussed entirely uncritically" or "a Temple where--for example--homophobic statements could be made and then defended with a careless 'well, that's what my trad teaches!'" Since when did asking for religious tolerance imply any of that? I'm perfectly aware that religion is often far from a force for good in the world, that many people have been screwed over royally by religion and that their complaints are valid, but that doesn't mean people can't allow any respect for others who do follow religions. If the starting supposition is that religion is stupid and damaging, then it feels about as friendly as a thread would which was entitled "Your sexual orientation" and went on to star stories of people who were previously gay but journeyed successfully towards heterosexuality and called anyone who was still gay stupid and immoral.
I'm a member of a women's interfaith group in real life (and several interfaith groups online), which includes Jews, Muslims, Christians of various denominations, Buddhists, an occasional Catholic or Baha'i, Quakers, Brahma Kumaris, and I'm trying to recruit a pagan friend. Despite the very strong differences of opinion which are in the group - I am strongly against religious sexual repression or pressured conversion, there are people who think it's immoral that I'm queer and engage in premarital relationships, for instance - we manage to engage in critical dialogue on some pretty hot topics without name-calling, with full mutual respect and with some damn good food. |
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