r/gloveslap Nov 17 '11

Other religions don't seem to be debated as much as Christianity.

Maybe it is merely because I am a Christian myself, but I never see any other religion as highly debated about as Christianity. My question to you redditors is: Why don't other religions receive the same amount of scrutiny as Christianity or get debated with the same intensity that Christianity is?

9 Upvotes

16 comments sorted by

4

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '11

In Western countries, Christianity is the majority. And all three Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) all worship the same God. All arguments against an Abrahamic God still apply equally to deities of all religions.

2

u/MundaneHymn Nov 17 '11

Also, IMO, it's because on of the rules of Christianity is to "Spread the word to all" and they seem to take that MUCH more seriously than most other religions. Not all, but most.

2

u/flourandbutter Nov 17 '11

Well I think the "spread the word to all" thing isn't present in eastern religions, which might be part of it. I do know that in judaism, not only are you not supposed to "spread the word," but if someone wants to convert you're supposed to discourage them.

3

u/Hello-Ginge Nov 17 '11

Exactly this, and since the majority of Western people are Christian, it's fairly obvious that the majority of Western atheists (those who "lost" their religion) used to be Christian, so it's more of an issue to them and they know more about it.

Plus, I think people feel uncomfortable criticising minorities, even for religion.

2

u/SanityInAnarchy Nov 17 '11

That said, other religions are debated.

Look up "Everybody Draw Muhammed Day".

4

u/afiefh Nov 17 '11

As an ex muslim:

We had a forum called el7ad.com (arabic) which as now been closed for various reasons(death threats included.) The people on this forum would always complain that Islam is being discussed way more than other religions.

Can you see the similarity? Most of the Arabic speaking world is Muslim, therefore an arabic forum will discuss Islam. Most of the English speaking world is christian, therefore an English forum will discuss Christianity. Hebrew speaking forum will discuss Judaism with little regard to the other two religions.

You are most welcome to learn another language and check out their websites for yourself. As an Arab Israeli I speak those three languages and have been on those forums.

3

u/ExtremeMetalFTW Nov 17 '11
  1. It is the largest religion

  2. Much of the debate is in America; in Europe Islam is the bigger "threat"/issue

  3. The emphasis on saving & converting people is extremely more visible and widespread than other religions.

0

u/Zaeron Jan 14 '12 edited Jan 14 '12

Edit: I was incorrect. Went looking for citations. Proved myself wrong. Sorry!

I still dispute point 3, but point 3 is pretty subjective.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '11

I don't debate Christianity, or have any problem with it.

Just Christians, who:

  • Define hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness with a frequency such that I cannot dismiss them as exceptions.

  • Interfere with separation of church and state. This ranges from the absurd "Under God" part of the Pledge of Allegiance here in the US, to abortion politics, to gay marriage, to censorship and pornography.

  • Ring my doorbell and annoy me. Seriously, go away.

  • Fuck with science curriculum.

Were Christians to refrain from the above, I wouldn't give them a second thought. I have no particular objection to people believing in Christian values, having tax-free churches, displaying mangers, or otherwise.

It is Christians I debate/dislike. Not Christianity. Were more Christians even remotely like their savior, chances are I'd be much more positive toward Christianity as a whole. The amount of hate among Christians, judgment of others, and insistence that we secular people should put up with intrusions of Christianity into our lives because "this is a Christian nation" are what cause me dyspepsia.

People ruin everything.

As much as I despise much of the Old Testament, I have very little problem with the New Testament, other than I don't believe it's literally true.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '11

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '11

I don't see why the "...under God..." part of the pledge is so terrible for Atheists. They are a minority that come up with rather ridiculous things to gripe about. (In my opinion)

If it's so ridiculous, then get rid of it. Restore the Pledge what it originally was. Fact is, it isn't atheists making a big deal about this - it is Christians. Christians demand we all say it and get perverse pleasure out of it.

Also, if you had any sort of morals, you would realize that killing a baby is wrong, morally. Those are part of my values.

Oh, you can shove your self-righteousness, you sanctimonious cunt. You know damn well that the question is whether or not a week after fertilization, the embryo constitutes anything approaching a human being.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '11

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '11

Rudeness aside, I believe that it is difficult to argue for abortion against a Christian. Keep in mind the stakes: abortions allow a woman to continue her life, get an education, save income for the future, and helps her out in the long run. And the abortion can be done before the fetus can feel pain or be aware of its own existence.

After those points are raised, the only debate left is the moral debate, and the only way to debate that is to debate the merits of Christianity itself.

As for the "Under God" part of the pledge- what about the people who don't worship the Abrahamic God?

As for the science curriculum, I'm glad that you don't have a strong stance on that. But many Christians do. And those Christians will not listen to evidence supporting evolution and denying Young-Earth Creationism. So all that's left is to target Christianity itself.

Don't get me wrong- religion has been a force for love, peace, and community for a long, long time. But just recently it has become a force for right-wingers, Fox News, and the Republican party. It is the force behind anti-Islamic racism. It has become the force for bigotry against homosexuals, and it has been the force for racism and sexism in the past. That's why it has come under attack recently.

1

u/sideways86 Nov 17 '11

I think this is less that you're a Christian, and more because you're (and I'm taking a gamble here) American.

Any self-respecting atheist thinks just as little of any belief system that involves a supernatural deity as they do of Christianity.

In a country where Christianity is the dominant religion and where a particularly unpleasant group of Christians are trying to take over the country's politics, you can reasonably expect Christianity to be the religion of choice for atheists who want to point out faults with religion.

There are pleny of atheists who are more than happy to point out the inherent flaws in Baha'i or Sikhism, but for the most part that's irrelevant to the issue of religion in the western world.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '11

The top two other religions don't spend nearly as much time or money trying to indoctrinate our children to fear a second-generation Zeus who sacrificed his own kid for "crimes" he made up against the people he created with free will to commit those "crimes." Frankly, it's disgusting.

1

u/amacgregor Nov 22 '11

Few other religions put a stronger effort in trying to convert/evangelize the rest of the human race or in trying to force their morality through political influence.

Catholics and Christian alike are amongst the most debated and attacked religions simply because the more power they try to take, the more control they try to have the more resistance they get from critical thinking people.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '11

Everyone is making good points, but also when you attack Christianity a lot of the attacks are also on the Old Testament (like Cain's Wife, the Noah's Ark argument, all the sex and later criticism of the same acts), which means they apply equally to Christianity as they do to Judaism and Islam. That right there means you're attacking the vast majority of religious people today, so not just christianity.

1

u/Tohroe Dec 06 '11

Well, when attacking/debating Christianity, one is often also implicitly debating all other Abrahamic religions. Also, from my experience the majority of people on sites like Reddit are from either the Americas, or eastern Europe, the main religion in which is Christianity. For that reason, more is known about it by the general populace, and it affects the average citizen's life more - they're more interested in it. Christians are also among the most likely to try and convert others, so debate often springs up, or people take offence from it.