Offensive Religion?

[boatsnguitars]

I once was called offensive because I wrote Xian. Short hand for Christian. I showed how the history of Christianity is replete with people using X or Chi for Christ. XP, etc.. They still didn't accept it because they thought I "intended to offend", which means that I didn't bow to their demands to "properly" honor their beliefs.

When I said, "Sky Daddy" they were also offended and corrected me by saying, "It's "Father in Heaven". I still don't see the difference.

It seems quite the hip and cool fad now to be offended by any number of things. But I want to restrict this to religious offense.

Why do religious people demand we treat their beliefs with respect?
Why should we care?

Make sure, if you are defending religious demands to respect their chosen beliefs, to include a reference to Charlie Hebdo and Muslim demands that we not show an image of Mohammad (despite there being images of Mohammad from ancient Islamic art). Do you respect that, or just fear the consequences? (Or, are you secretly agreeing that Islam is the one, true religion?)

Which religions do we need to honor? Is there a certain number of people that makes it a "respectable religion" and not a cult? Or, do we need to respect cults, too?
And since other religions tell us "those" religions are evil, how are we supposed to make everyone happy?

Why do religious people get upset when we treat their religions as a joke? (Christians think of how you regard Wicca, or Mormons think how you regard Scientology).

What is the general rule one should follow if you hear someone talking about a ridiculous religious idea?


Please explore this topic with me about what is the Right and Wrong way to show respect to religions, while thinking they are #*#@&% crazy.

[boatsnguitars]

My analogy is if someone gives orphans presents: great! Happy days! If they tell those orphans Santa is going to give them more next year and he actually means a real, supernatural Santa, nope. Not a respectable position.

But people do lie to their children about Santa, all the time. And for some reason they're not taken to task for it. In fact, if I try to clear it up, I'll be demonised, because the children need to be lied to or some such.

I'd stay far away from the person that would promise orphans that Santa will bring them presents next year, knowing they have no parents at present to present the presents....

So would I and in fact I'd hate that person, because they're putting it on others to give those children presents. But in the real world that person would be seen as giving of hope, a positive force, and I'd be seen as captain bringdown for not wanting them to make promises when they have no role or control in the fulfillment of those promises.

Yep. We cling to hope, even false hope, because we've been conditioned to pray, wish, and dream instead of work, plan, adjust in the face of difficulty or defeat, or accept defeat and move on if necessary. Sure, bother are important at different times, but religion seems to only incorporate the former.

[Purple Knight]

Yep. We cling to hope, even false hope, because we've been conditioned to pray, wish, and dream instead of work, plan, adjust in the face of difficulty or defeat, or accept defeat and move on if necessary. Sure, bother are important at different times, but religion seems to only incorporate the former.

You're probably like me in that you don't like the mindless positivity. I don't like it when someone tells me everything is going to be alright if they don't know. Yet in the popular anime My Hero Academia, where characters hone their superpowers and train intensively to be heroes, they correct a character for saying, "Wow this looks bad," in a mock rescue situation. You're supposed to tell them it's going to be alright.

But I wouldn't want that kind of false comfort. If a superhero came to rescue me and I was in a really bad way, I'd bite his head off and ruin any chance of a rescue if he said, "Everything's going to be fine," when it clearly wasn't.

I think we're the outliers. They really would train superheroes to say that everything was fine because it really would work on most people... who not only want the empty comfort, but won't rage if somebody is clearly lying to them.