KazeAizen said:
I won't deny some of the more religious families can be harsh to their kids. Our natural instinct once we hit a certain age is to rebel to an extent. Funny thing is in the past the church was actually a heavy commissioner of explorations of various sciences. So there is some overlap right there. The debate is one worth having but no one wants to debate it anymore. I once posted a thread, which I sort of regret now, asking should religion as a whole just be done with. Over 75% said yes that religion should just go away all together. 75%!
I try to indulge them. I try to listen to people who don't share similar beliefs as me. Very few though have anything intelligent to say. Most are just angry for what you are describing most likely. An environment that shoved it in their face and caused them some form of harm in the past thus they hate the very notion of it while then using examples from the Renaissance era to back up their reasons why the church is a vile terrible thing. I won't deny that it was messed up back then and that we've had stumbling blocks in recent years but everywhere I turn someone calls the whole thing, specifically the Catholic church, the largest organization of pedophiles in the world. Thank you for actually having an intelligent response and bringing to light some interesting stuff for me. I half expected to get a savage response from someone.
In my case, my parents were very open and didn't try to force anything on me or my siblings. They just wanted us to have some exposure to religion to make up our own minds. I love them for that, and many other things. My grandparents, who we were left in the care of, and who I also love dearly, were much more responsible for the push towards Christian belief. The youth group we were a part of was all about squashing independent thought and learning repetitious dogma. We were schooled in the new testament but also encouraged to treat homosexuals as sinners (with no explanation as to why homosexuality was worse than the sins we were all supposedly committing all the time). It was simply a form of bigotry and prejudice backed up by Biblical decree from the old and new testament. So my story isn't particularly vile, just dubious, but I know of many others like myself who lost something in those years we were forcibly indoctrinated. I need not appeal to some Medieval example of the harm the church can do, I lived through enough of it to know. I tell you all this simply to explain why I view the church the way I do, not as an accusation that you're some brainwashed cultist or moron. You have your own experiences, and I respect that, as they are no less important than my own.
I should also note that I am an agnostic atheist, a skeptic and a religious person. I happen to adhere to a religious philosophy that has no deity and no supernatural belief. I think religion is best described as what one does, not what one believes. Belief has very little value when compared to what action results due to that belief. I find Christianity to be no more or less valid than any other religious practice of similar stripe. What I, and so many others take issue with isn't the belief, though we may find the tenants themselves questionable at best, the problem is with the actions of some based on their professed belief.
When a group of people try to co-opt a science class by injecting creationist propaganda into it, I don't just blame the people who are doing this, I look at why they think they should. Christianity teaches one to be evangelical, even at the expense of one's own life. I find this notion, in actual practice, to be incompatible with a secular society. So if you are the sort to hold to your religious views and are able to live and let live in this secular nation, I'd embrace you. But, those who religiously go about working to do what their religion commands, even if it conflicts with a free and open nation, I must take action against, and I cannot ignore the beliefs they hold that inform that action. So I must be critical not only of the people but of their religion as well. I do not attack the religion out of hatred from the wrongs it did to me, but because I don't want to see those same wrongs done to others.
But be proud of your religious belief, tell others what you think and listen in turn. Love your neighbor even if he dismisses you or thinks you a fool. Enjoy yourself and indulge in your religious practice without shame. Just make sure that whatever you decide to practice, it does not work toward subverting the secular society in which we live. So long as we stay true to secularism, we can all live peaceably by whatever creed we deem fit for us. In the case of this story, that means not pretending as if some religious belief belongs on a show about science. But you already know that, and have said as much, and for that I respect you.
