Hey how come it is cool to hate christianity?

You don't hate somebody who's down already, what's the point? Thus people who hate Jews, immigrants, etc. are usually frowned upon as idiotic.

You don't hate something you have no understanding of- you can't back it up! Thus few intelligent people hate Muslims- they aren't qualified and they know it.

But you can easily hate the status quo that you've grown up with your entire life without fear of backlash or scathing criticism. And I'm not saying this is the thought process that goes on when people 'decide' what they dislike - but this is basically why it's 'acceptable' to generally deride Christianity etc.

I don't hate Christians. I find the prostlytizing annoying, but I just tend to ignore it the older I get (there was a time I'd be outraged). I also don't hate Muslims, though some of them don't like us Americans and Jews much in return.

I'm assuming that this has been started by the comments in the Christmas thread, none of which I remembered as being hateful or predjudical at all (and quite frankly it seems blatantly obvious to me that calling people cockfarmers for not celebrating Christmas is like the definition of predjudice if we want to be picky and not take things as jokes), and Anthony's very specific rage.

From one of the three threads I read today:
"But now that you've got me started thinking about it, I really do rather resent the implication that there's something wrong with not celebrating a holiday that originates in a belief system I would rather see wither away. "

I don't really see anything wrong with that comment, just the last thing sounds pretty negative. I mean, if the same thing was talking about say, the Middle Eastern culture it would be pretty offensive, so why not this?
I noticed it a bunch more before, but I can't be bothered looking for other examples. I was just wondering why I see this sort of thing far more than negative comments about, say, Jews (I have seen comments like that, however they seem to be always in jest, which I think you'll agree, is a different kettle of fish?).

"How come Christians tend to take any criticism or "Non-Word-of-God" comments towards their dogma as being "hate and prejudice"? Since we're dealing in huge sweeping generalizations - I'd like to know."

Why do you assume I'm Christian?
Also, this wasn't started by the christmas thread thingy, since I only read the first few comments. Although it did remind me of this subject which has me curious, and I did get the example above from it.
In any case, don't think I am just trying to whine about some sort of persecution treatment. I'm not offended or moved by any of these comments, I was just curious as to why people that say these sort of things do not seem to lose as much respect as they would if they had been talking about religions other than christianity. This is not just on this board, but in real life. I don't give a shit about it, it was just something I've always wondered the reasons to.
This is long winded as I can't think properly right now. Sorry.

"I assume your quote about the Jews is supposed to be ironic?"

Does it matter?

Pretty good responses so far though, thanks a lot. Tom Millar's views make a lot of sense, in particular.

"Anyway the one line you quoted expressed a hatred for the belief system not for the believers."

Oh hey I really think the Indian culture is retarded and lame and should cease to exist. Anyone with Indian roots and/or values should immediately stop being different and start acting like me in every way.

It's a pretty ignorant thing to say, at least in my opinion.

Criticism doesn't equal hate. But if those Jews were attempting to pass legislation that enforced their own beliefs over your own, then yes, you are allowed to be pissed off. A lot of people mistakenly accept that the far right Christians represent the entire religon. But then that's also the fault of the more moderate side for not speaking up often enough.

christianity in america is the dominant religion, that underpins the social fabric, it seems ok to resent this to me...the other religions are fighting for their space there

in the uk though, christianity is something of an oddity, which doesnt really underpin anything anymore, we are only a christian country nominally, although protestantism has given us our form of capitalism, the work ethic and the 9-5, so, uk, thanks...

it does raise the question though, now that christianity is a minor religion here, does that make dislike of it different? also, its retreat from society has left open the gap for aggressive nu-christian cult type things like Alpha, which i despise a great deal, but then Alpha is a small vibrant heavily expansionist form of christianity rather than the dominant societal underpinning type stuff, so, should i really be able to be so denigrative?

including news producers, who have been calling the same six guys up for "the christian point of view" since te days of jessca hahn.

in the states there is reason to be wary of a certain strain (that's mostly far-right and southern-based) of christianity because of the way its values are trying to ingratiate themselves into american politics (and have been since their first attempts to add a 'christian amendment' to the constitution in the mid-19th century), and how rarely those attempts are commented on or called out. as a woman named leah pointed out earlier this week:

Routinely, when Pat Robertson is interviewed on any of the cable news shows, he is never asked any questions that even begin to explore the right wing radicalism that is on copious display on The 700 Club. On one show some years ago, while defending a Judge who likes to say a Christian prayer in court before a case is heard, Robertson insisted he'd have no problem with a Moslem judge reading from the Koran, though he was pleased as a nice cup of Christian punch to note there are no such judges anywhere in the US of A. A week later, there was a filmed "news" report on the show on the growth of Islam in America in which Islam was identified as a Satanic religion, the symbols of which Christians had to be on guard to avoid, including visiting mosques, or having Islamic art in the home. We sometimes forget, because of the Reverend attached to their names, how often these guys lie.

I gather informed opinion does not believe that any more.

But there's only one religion that's ever been so arrogant as to think that the whole world has to suffer its piety, and that's Christianity, and it's always cool to resent your oppressor.

There are few things more annoying than being preached to by religious people. Being preached to by die-hard anti-religious people is one of them.

In the UK at least, most people I know don't really care one way or another about Christianity more than they do about Buddhists or Sikhs, bar mild annoyance at being preached to and Sunday closing hours.

It will be interesting to see how our new leftie Archbishop of Canterbury copes, as well.

I think of Christianity as playing a huge part in my growing up and coming of age. When I was little, my family went to church almost every single day. My dad was a deacon and my mom was a Sunday school teacher. But our house was very sterile. My mom kept the house and we rarely saw my dad who was pretty distant. I considered myself to be very Christian indeed and used to brag that I had been both christened (sp?) and baptised. I would get angry if someone spelled my name without the H because the Sarai in the bible without the H worshipped the wrong god. When the nurses would ask me if I needed an iron bib when being X-rayed, I would say, "No! I am a Christian!" (as if she was suggesting I was some sort of whore by asking)

Anyway, when I was about 11 we moved out of our suburban home to a farm. I was completely torn by the move (the first of several). In the midst of trying to restore the old farmhouse with our very conservative relatives, my parents had a really tough separation which involved lots of yelling. Then suddenly they both began confiding in me - and I had never really thought of them as real people with real emotions before - and questioning god in general. My mom started reading New Age books (total faux pas for the far right) and within a year my dad stopped going to church. And my dad's side of the family offered to pay for mom's exhorsism (she politely declined). As I've mentioned before, my relatives told my young cousins (along with my sisters and I to our face) that we would be going to hell because our parents divorced.

I could go on and on about my relatives and the struggle I had with them (and still have sometimes) due to their far right-wing beliefs and my lack thereof.

Anyway, I don't hate Christianity but I do tend to get stressed out about it sometimes. Lots of bad memories. Some good memories too - like singing in the choir and playing the bells and pretty churches and luncheons - but not alltogether heavenly.

I live in the U.S., so most of the certain religious people I hate are Xtians. For example, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama is a real putz. However, I also hate certain specific [sci-ent-olog-ists], jews, and muslims.

"But now that you've got me started thinking about it, I really do rather resent the implication that there's something wrong with not celebrating a holiday that originates in a belief system I would rather see wither away."

I said that! I don't hate Christians. I guess I could say that I hate certain forms of Christianity, but I wouldn't normally put it that way. I have no desire to see Christians persecuted or prevented from practicing their religion (with the usual exceptions for rare cases where someone's belief about what their religion demands conflicts with the law, and even there, in some cases it might be better to waive the law). I think Christianity is based on false beliefs, and I would like to see those beliefs die out. (I don't think this is going to happen in my lifetime.) It's not even a matter of whether I think it does more harm or good overall. I think its claims are mistaken.

I believe in the value of worldviews, ideologies, philosophies, etc. battling it out, and not being treated with kid gloves. I think we can respect the individuals who hold the beliefs, without respecting the beliefs themselves. (To paraphrase the old saying "Hate the sin, but love the sinner"; "Hate the belief, but love the believer.") It's relatively uncommon for people in the western world to kill each other over religion anymore, and I think that's a good thing, but I don't think we should allow ourselves to become completely whishy-washy and not be willing to challenge one another's beliefs, at least in the public square, which this is. When it comes to dealing with friends and acquaitances, agreeing to disagree (and forget about it) might be the better policy most of the time.

I said (or attempted to say) some critical things about Islam as well in another thread. Judaism, Christianity, Islam: each one is worse than the other, to use a bit of middle eastern rhetoric. Judaism bothers me less mostly because it's a lot less interested in making converts than Christianity or Islam. It's had more time to become civilized (watered down?) as a religion. (On the other hand, for a minority religion it has managed to create lots of problems by providing the background for Zionism and the present Palestinian/Israeli conflict.)

Now let me read the rest of this thread.

Webber's would-be parallels fail because of these differences (leaving aside the odd bit of bad faith in phrasing). I've heard the same kinds of arguments when complaints are made about men or white people, and they don't work.

I was under the impression that Islam did (or still does) many of the things listed.

My understanding was always that Xianity, Islam and Buddhism were the three great 'conversionist' religions, at least in terms of lasting to the present.

It would take Islam an extra five hundred years or so to catch up to Christianity's laundry-list of atrocities -- which incidentally are matters of historical record, not paranoid conspiracy theories like the one advanced by anti-Semites like Griff

(In all honestly, aren't religions conversionist by nature? It's just the extremes of such conversion/anti-other behavior that causes ire to rise against Christianity and Islam)

(I mean JEWS FOR JESUS???!)

Again, criticism doesn't equal hate. I would love if there were moderate and liberal voices coming out of the middle east. Things like Arafat telling Osama to fuck off. (Even if it is just lip service.) More of that, please.

Also many people believe that Jews control all/a sizeable portion of the media, and use it to push their own insidious agendas. Generally these people aren't given an awful amount of respect by the rest of us.

So the point you meant here was that a few crazy people shouldn't be seen as representatives for an entire faith. (Which is what I said originally....) The problem with your comparison is the Jewish conspiracy doesn't exist and the Christian Coalition does.

so, whenever you get into criticising judiasm or islam, its not something separate from race, whereas with christianity it is. i think the world would be a lot better off without all 3 (they are incredibly linked anyway), but you do have to tread carefully with such views (i guess this is the source of david blunketts anti-hate bill being extended to religion)

"It would take Islam an extra five hundred years or so to catch up to Christianity's laundry-list of atrocities -- which incidentally are matters of historical record, not paranoid conspiracy theories like the one advanced by anti-Semites like Griff"

The conclusion he seems to reach is that because the other religions havent done things as badly as christianity, then therefore that's ok. That's like saying well, hitler didnt kill as many people as stalin, so he's ok by me (or vice-versa, i'm not aware of the body counts). I mean it's pretty obvious they've all done retarded things and created a lot of suffering in the world, this is a negative thing about all religion, not just christianity.

So why are you simply singling out one? Additionally, how is the fact that Christianity has done (arguably) more harm to the world some sort of defense against the other religions' misdeeds?

"The problem with your comparison is the Jewish conspiracy doesn't exist"

That's what they want you to think.