See, here's the funny thing about "equality". People aren't in favor of equality, because everyone thinks their own views are the right ones. So the only logical way to define equality is to base it on things beyond our control. Race. Gender. Sexuality. Hair color. Etc.
Most people agree those are fair things to protect and to consider equal to each other.
However, religion is a CHOICE. You CHOOSE the religion that is right for you, you CHOOSE to follow its rules and CHOOSE to do right or wrong as it defines those terms.
People's choices are not equal. Otherwise, you'd have to defend EVERYONE's viewpoint as equal. This means Scientology and its Thetan detectors. Or believe who believe aliens visit them nightly. Or furries who actually believe a cat soul is inside them.
Can you say YOU treat all of those chosen beliefs as equal?
But isn't that the point in of itself? People choose their beliefs, religion is indeed one of them. People choose things they want to believe in, and things they don't. The thing is, this applies to things that are outside of our control, such as race, gender, sexual orientation. People believe that certain races are inferior to others, certain genders are inferior to others, and certain sexual orientations are inferior to others. These decisions aren't completely motivated by religious beliefs though (although some are).
What you are saying is akin to saying something like differences in wealth and education. There are people who believe that those who are less wealthy and less educated have a lesser existence on the earth. Wealth and education can (at a certain extent) be a choice.
But that is completely beside the point. The subtle point being made is that not everyone who identifies with a group acts the same way. Do all black people dress a certain way, speak a certain way, only eat certain foods? Obviously not, and GAF of all places should know better. That is why its rather startling to see such a place that prides itself on having a tolerant community (and a surprisingly large Gay/Lesbian userbase) completely flip their stance when it comes to religion. Not only that, but it just drops to childish jabs that are on the level of system wars on the gaming side.
To be honest, I can't understand how it's possible that religion is more protected than sexual preference since objectively speaking, religion is rather trivial in terms of subject matter, while sexual preference is existential.
A thousand times yes. In that same breath I don't understand why it's so heavily discussed (and heated at that) when there are other REAL problems going on in America. When you have a country where corporate greed, racism, poverty, education and healthcare are real issues, insisting that Religion kills america is...kind of trivial.
That is not to say that there aren't a lot of religious nutjubs in america, there definitely are. The vitriol for them is unwarranted though...and honestly? It only seems to be from GAF.
