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Religion and hate by proxy


Burt
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This article popped up on NPR today:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/07/19/332678567/americans-really-like-jews-muslims-and-atheists-not-so-much

 

and it basically says that Americans love Jews and hate Muslims. Not exactly mind-blowing. However, all of the evangelicals who love Jews aren't really loved by Jews. Nobody really likes atheists.

 

 

I grew up in a quasi-Southern area of the US (mix of Texan, Midwest, and South), and Jews and Muslims are pretty uncommon. People seem to be ambivalent about Jews unless they are fighting Muslims, and then they're suddenly God's people. I wonder, if there were no Muslims, if the same people rooting for Israel on my Facebook feed would blame the "Jewish media" for whatever.

 

I guess I just have a hard time getting caught up in all of it. I'm very aware that atheists are disliked, and I am very tight-lipped on my thoughts on that outside of my house. I have found that when I say I'm an agnostic, people just lump me in with atheists. As a scientist, I see no evidence to support claims by atheists or religions that there definitively is or isn't a higher power. I am open to the possibility there is a higher power, but it almost certainly isn't explained by any religion that has ever existed. When I express my thoughts, I noticed I have been shunned by some of those who are religious. It's kind of a strange feeling to be ostracized like that, but I suppose it was very common in the past.

 

Do your experiences line up with the study?

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Actually I knew some "christans" that actually hated jews because they blame them for killing Jesus.

 

I am suprised you were shunned rather than then trying to convert you or preach the gospel.

 

Muslims and Mormons to me are the most misunderstood religions in the U.S. today. Especially when someone thinks an Indian person is Muslim based on visual stereotypes.

 

Mormons I have learned being a teacher have great values,especially in education and they do not tolerate their children being poor students nor behavior issues.

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Out here on the west coast, I would say it's sort of the opposite. I think there are quite a few atheists and agnostics in cities like Seattle, and they mock Christians a lot. I have a friend who is very active in an atheist parenting group. She refuses to send her daughter to any of the preschools run by churches (and that's most of them, it seems like.

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Actually I knew some "christans" that actually hated jews because they blame them for killing Jesus.

 

I am suprised you were shunned rather than then trying to convert you or preach the gospel.

 

Muslims and Mormons to me are the most misunderstood religions in the U.S. today. Especially when someone thinks an Indian person is Muslim based on visual stereotypes.

 

Mormons I have learned being a teacher have great values,especially in education and they do not tolerate their children being poor students nor behavior issues.

Nobody tries to convert me, and I'm not sure why. I agree with the latter sentence, but there's some bad that goes along with those positives. I know of one Muslim undergraduate student who is being put in an arranged marriage. She is happy about it, but she is seemingly unaware that she's being treated like property. One can say, "Hey, their culture, their choice" and that's fair, but she has been brainwashed all her life so how can it really be her choice?

 

Out here on the west coast, I would say it's sort of the opposite. I think there are quite a few atheists and agnostics in cities like Seattle, and they mock Christians a lot. I have a friend who is very active in an atheist parenting group. She refuses to send her daughter to any of the preschools run by churches (and that's most of them, it seems like.

That makes sense. I am uneasy about how much religion my child gets exposed to. I view things like getting baptized as benign, but I remember sunday school teachers injecting that guilt into me when I was under the age of ten. "You're imperfect, you've sinned, only this guy can save you." It's not so benign then, and for me the effects still linger. I don't know of any preschools that aren't Christian.

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Interesting Athiests are hated so much. That's a head spin, but not so surprising I guess. From what I have seen most religions seem to exude and foster an intolerance of others (rather than acceptance) to varying degrees. Whether it be an open hate or dislike, or a benign neglect, or ostricisation or quiet distrust. Its funny how people are still really tribal when it comes down to it.

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Where I'm from, most people are vaguely religious, but any real devotion is uncommon (outside migrant communities) and looked on as being odd. "Spiritual, but not religious" is the common thing said. Most people I know do not attend worship services with any degree of regularity, but most people also don't like outright atheism either. The atheists I do know, however, are extremely outspoken and militant. Much more so than even the evangelicals I know.

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The atheists I do know, however, are extremely outspoken and militant. Much more so than even the evangelicals I know.

Yeah. I hear more talk about god and religion and more outright hatred for differing opinions/people from atheists than any religious person. And I know some crazy religious people.

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The atheists I do know, however, are extremely outspoken and militant. Much more so than even the evangelicals I know.

Yeah. I hear more talk about god and religion and more outright hatred for differing opinions/people from atheists than any religious person. And I know some crazy religious people.

 

That's the irony, the atheists of that type don't realize they're extreme fundamentalists.

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Wow. You guys must live in a no Mormon-Jehovah's Witness Zone. I get more knocks on the door by these types of people than a black dude with a Jesus handout in my Walmart parking lot trying to get me to go to Jesus as it were. Since I've moved into my condo I've had no less than six knocks at my door by bicycling guys in white button downs in a years time. I've only been accosted at Walmarts parking lot once with a photocopies Jesus sheet by a dude from a half-way house asking if Jesus is my lord and savior.

 

As for Muslim/Hindu people they only irritate me when they drive. They've never tried converting.

 

Maybe that's the trick.

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Wow. You guys must live in a no Mormon-Jehovahs Witness Zone. I get more knocks on the door by these types of people than a black dude with a Jesus handout in my Walmart parking lot trying to get me to go to Jesus as it were. Since I've moved into my condo I've had no less than six knocks at my door by bicycling guys in white button downs in a years time. I've only been accosted at Walmarts parking lot once with a photocopies Jesus sheet by a dude from a half-way house asking if Jesus is my lord and savior.

 

I have a few signs on my door to discourage uninvited visitors. It got to be I had 1-2 people coming by a week to sell me something, and after being burgled twice I put some hostile stuff up on the glass door. It works for poison dart frogs, and it has worked for me thus far. Put up something like this and a NO SOLICITING sign, and they won't bother you:

il_340x270.487750600_qmm6.jpg

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I need to get a No Solicitors sign. Since we moved in October I swear we've gotten so many more than we did in our old house. I'm just going to stop answering the door. I know we'd still get schmucks knocking but at least then I can just point to the sign and shut the door.

 

I want this one: https://www.etsy.com/listing/182753034/no-soliciting-except-girl-scout-cookies

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When solicitors knock on my door even when I have a sticker on my storm door that says "no solicitors" I open my door and stare at them with my crazy Jack Nicholson face from The Shining and do not say a word and point to my sticker. They usually get the point after 30 seconds or when I then slam the door.

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Meh. I sit on the patio and when the Watchtower purveyors show I I try to convert them to Scientology.

I once invited some Mormons in and tried to convert them. I'm told that my house was then put on a list to avoid.

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There is an episode of Black Books (a British comedy) in which the Irish sociopathic, heavy drinking bookstore owner played by Dylan Morran invites these Jehovas witnesses into his house so he can learn more about Jesus, as an excuse, ANY excuse, to procrastinate doing his tax returns. In the end the JWs end up running from his place in fear cause never before was someone so interested to hear their take on the big fella upstairs.

 

Kinda along similar lines to your experience Fozzie. Oh the laughs.

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I used to live upstairs from an apartment full of Mormons on their mission. They would come up to teach me about their faith, but not if I invited them to play Wii. I thought that wasn't very neighborly. I would also crank my heat to 75 since it was included and that's how I liked it, but they weren't into that since they had a rule about not taking their coats or suit jackets off. They would usually bring a creepy older man with them and all cram on my tiny couch in the blistering heat. They never stayed for long.

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