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I think it's healthy and necessary to make fun of fundamentalists - I think the issue comes when people make efforts at taking them seriously and give their pla

by munk-a 5y ago

I think it's healthy and necessary to make fun of fundamentalists - I think the issue comes when people make efforts at taking them seriously and give their platform a modicum of respect at a national level. The US has a severe issue with fundamentalist entrenchment in media and government at the moment and it's going to take a while to kick them all out. Evangelism is an extremist ideology that is causing ongoing harm to the stability of America in more ways than just the abortion debate. As I've aged I think I've drifted more and more toward the french view of religious freedom - rather than freedom of religion, freedom from religion.

lhorie 5y ago
I find it amusing to compare how we treat fundamentalists vs how we treat children. They both can be extremely stubborn and say the darnest things, but with one group, people think ridicule is going to yield good results, even though with the other, that's a big no-no. You know you're not going to get a good result from a yelling contest with your kid about who's more right, so I don't understand the reasoning that dismissing religion altogether is somehow going to "make the sheeple see the error of their ways". Semi-ironically, I'm reminded of an episode of a kids-oriented podcast I listened to recently that talked about a different approach to conflict resolution: negotiations. The gist being to strive to meet the other party at their level and work together rather than against each other. You'd be surprised at how fundamentally you can shake some people by pointing at some relevant Bible passage that supports your position (for example, showering them w/ direct quotes from Matthew 25:35, Leviticus 19:34 and a dozen other similar passages in response to xenophobia) For climate change specifically, there's a bunch of passages written where the gist is that God made Earth good, but humans defiled it[0]. One could probably start a dialogue by pointing at those. [0] https://www.openbible.info/topics/climate_change https://www.openbible.info/topics/climate_change
- rapind 5y ago
  This analogy is deeply flawed. Your kids brain is still developing and they are still actively learning. Taking different approaches helps. That is almost always not the case with a fundamentalist.
  - lhorie 5y ago
    The police begs to differ. Negotiation is an effective tactic used by competent police forces against hostage takers. Also, fundamentalists are people, not pre-programmed robots. Many ISIS fighters, for example, are young adults whose very active learning capabilities are being exploited by a subversive group. Also, I think the track record of arguing and butting heads kinda speaks for itself. Everyone's doing it and yet the world is literally on fire and on a path towards destruction.
nradov 5y ago
There's no way to kick out religious fundamentalists. They get to vote just like everyone else. And they have created their own echo chamber media. Any real solutions will require working with them and not just dismissing them.
pessimizer 5y ago
You can't kick religious people off of the world. And anyway, they're better at organization and mutual aid, so they would win any conflict with you. The question is whether you want to get stuff accomplished or want to be right. A dead pedestrian who had the right-of-way was right, but it doesn't matter to them anymore.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

by munk-a 5y ago

lhorie 5y ago

I find it amusing to compare how we treat fundamentalists vs how we treat children. They both can be extremely stubborn and say the darnest things, but with one group, people think ridicule is going to yield good results, even though with the other, that's a big no-no. You know you're not going to get a good result from a yelling contest with your kid about who's more right, so I don't understand the reasoning that dismissing religion altogether is somehow going to "make the sheeple see the error of their ways". Semi-ironically, I'm reminded of an episode of a kids-oriented podcast I listened to recently that talked about a different approach to conflict resolution: negotiations. The gist being to strive to meet the other party at their level and work together rather than against each other. You'd be surprised at how fundamentally you can shake some people by pointing at some relevant Bible passage that supports your position (for example, showering them w/ direct quotes from Matthew 25:35, Leviticus 19:34 and a dozen other similar passages in response to xenophobia) For climate change specifically, there's a bunch of passages written where the gist is that God made Earth good, but humans defiled it[0]. One could probably start a dialogue by pointing at those. [0] https://www.openbible.info/topics/climate_change https://www.openbible.info/topics/climate_change

rapind 5y ago
This analogy is deeply flawed. Your kids brain is still developing and they are still actively learning. Taking different approaches helps. That is almost always not the case with a fundamentalist.
- lhorie 5y ago
  The police begs to differ. Negotiation is an effective tactic used by competent police forces against hostage takers. Also, fundamentalists are people, not pre-programmed robots. Many ISIS fighters, for example, are young adults whose very active learning capabilities are being exploited by a subversive group. Also, I think the track record of arguing and butting heads kinda speaks for itself. Everyone's doing it and yet the world is literally on fire and on a path towards destruction.

nradov 5y ago

There's no way to kick out religious fundamentalists. They get to vote just like everyone else. And they have created their own echo chamber media. Any real solutions will require working with them and not just dismissing them.

pessimizer 5y ago

You can't kick religious people off of the world. And anyway, they're better at organization and mutual aid, so they would win any conflict with you. The question is whether you want to get stuff accomplished or want to be right. A dead pedestrian who had the right-of-way was right, but it doesn't matter to them anymore.

deleted 5y ago
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