2 ms·

Because it sounds antagonistic, it's counter indicated by modern culture, plus large proportion of any given audience IS religious and firmly believes they are

Because it sounds antagonistic, it's counter indicated by modern culture, plus large proportion of any given audience IS religious and firmly believes they are entitled to special treatment, which is indeed enshrined in laws of most countries. I've been atheist all my life and it took Me 30 years to get beyond my own cultural conditioning and allow myself to To think "religion is not special belief above all others". Still sounds like a sacrilege even to me and I have to fight the instinct to give it special privilege mentally and automatically. Note that most other protected features are assumed to be ingrained and largely immutable for the purpose of the law (race, age, etc). The law treats religion the same, as opposed to personal choice that it is like all others. One of my light-bulb moments was when I started replacing phrase "Christian /Muslim / Etc child" with "child of Christian / Muslim / Hindu /etc parents". We should not pretend we do not have agency and freedom of belief... And thus be judged upon that chosen belief like all others. "I want to hurt that animal / abuse women / disrespect others /etc" should be treated no differently whether suffixed by "because religion" or "because I want to".

gpderetta 5y ago
I'm not religious either, that's why I recognize that protected features are not some immutable law of nature but a social construct. As a society we have long come to the conclusion that, for good or bad, limiting religious expression leads do disastrous consequences. That doesn't mean that religion should have free reign (we have for example long decided that church and state should be separate), but any change of the status quo needs to go largely through general social agreement, not mandated from first principles.

2 ms·

Because it sounds antagonistic, it's counter indicated by modern culture, plus large proportion of any given audience IS religious and firmly believes they are

by NikolaNovak 5y ago

gpderetta 5y ago
I'm not religious either, that's why I recognize that protected features are not some immutable law of nature but a social construct. As a society we have long come to the conclusion that, for good or bad, limiting religious expression leads do disastrous consequences. That doesn't mean that religion should have free reign (we have for example long decided that church and state should be separate), but any change of the status quo needs to go largely through general social agreement, not mandated from first principles.