You've missed my point. I wasn't disagreeing or agreeing with you over whether religion was stupid, I was making the point that it's cruel to insult people beacuse of their religion. They could be a part of the church of the flying spahgetti monster for all it matters, but if they care enough about it, then insulting their beliefs is callous and deliberately inflammatory.Nemesis wrote:Well, when I said 'stupid religion' I meant the everything that comes with religion. I wasn't calling one particular religion stupid, just the amount of offense people take to the smallest thing. The thing I was calling stupid isn't the belief itself but the lynchmob nature of them. Name one other thing that could cause death threats and riots because of a cartoon?Shanba wrote:"Stupid religion" does come into it, though. You can't ride roughshod over someone's beliefs just because you don't share them. Hell, they might be right, and you might be wrong. It's similar to why you wouldn't call a Greek Cypriot a stupid fucking Turk: you know it's going to offend them and you're going out of your way tobeoffensive.
I'm not arguing this point, again. Whether or not gay is "good" or "bad" is irrelevant. It's whether the words are offensive to a certain person. Similarly, you would not call someone who fought in ww2 and watched their friends die a nazi. Whether being gay is good or bad is irrelevant, it's still an insult designed specifically to offend a person.
Well, consider no humans are actually cows... And some humans are actually gay... And being gay isn't a bad thing. I would 100% prefer to be called gay to being called a cow. (Although neither would offend me.)Calling him a cow is different, in this case, because of the context (which is also what makes teasing him about possibly being gay offensive). The cow joke is a long running joke established throughout the site/scumchat and anyway, cow is not an insult that is particularly offensive.
The entire way of looking at this, that gay = bad and cow = meh... That's offensive. Being called gay might mean you are funny, have good taste, can dance, are tidy, etc... Based on the stereotype, people can joke about people being gay and it be a compliment. (Although granted, most gay people I know don't actually fit into the sterotype.)
You don't get it, do you? With someone who is religious, their religion is the most important thing. It has to be. That's the point of religion. Going at it half arsed is just as bad as not being religious at all. As such, religion is much more volatile, and much closer to someone's heart than where their homestate is.
And yeah, cow is a long established joke but when it was originally made it was more an insult to a state. (Insulting people's homestate = offensive to some.)
Also, I'm not sure it's true that that was where the joke came from, but eh. That's beside the point.
That is the extreme to which religion goes, though. In it's adherents, it is (or demands to be) the first thing on their minds and in their hearts. YouThat's one hell of an extreme you are going to there. But I can just say no and not be bothered. That wouldn't get passed because of the profanity anyway. I'm not going to get upset over something like that, there's no reason to.If I nominated you for the title "Stupid Fucking Cuntweasel" then the negativity might be just slightly too much, don't you think?I don't see why everyone is making a big deal over this when titles sometimes are negative things.
Science is rational, religion is by definition not rational. Sure, the reactions are extreme. But that is not representative of the mainstream religious views, and it does not legitimise taking revenge.Pffft. No scientist would take an evolution joke as a reason to put someone on a deathlist.Religion is a touchy business - it claims to be the ultimate answer and some people believe that.
If it is offensive, then yes it should be slammed. You should not be allowed to impose your religious views on others uninvited, sure. But they should not be allowed to mock your religion either.That's true. My religious beliefs are irrelevant. It doesn't matter if I believe a pink elephant orbiting the universe would take offense to me going to a zoo... If I believe that, then whether I'm right or not shouldn't affect how a title request is viewed.Whether they are right or not is irrelevant
But that also works the other way. Just because I believe in my pink elephant, it doesn't mean that any title request about not going to zoos should be slammed, just because it's against my religion.
Also, you misinterpreted my argument, and took it out of context. The point I was making was that someone may be mistaken over their religion, but that doesn't give you the right to go out and attack them because of it. They have a right to believe what they want. Imposing a title on them offensive to their religion (and you know it is, too) is over the line.
This is all beside the point. What does this have to do with one person insulting another's religious beliefs? Sure, religions have done bad things. It's interesting to note, though, that many of those bad things were politically motivated as well.Well I'm not intending to turn this thread into a religious debate, I could try and convince people that their religion is wrong, I don't do it... That is about the most respect I'll give a belief. I don't even name all the bad things religions have done.it's whether their beliefs have a right to be respected
But hell, if someone makes a suggestion that is based on something valid but is exaggerated for comedic effect, that suggestion shouldn't cause the reaction it has. The suggestion is within the rules and those rules are the only thing that defines what is ok and what isn't.
People can believe whatever the hell they want to believe as long as nothing changes because of it.
Wow.I actually wasn't going out of my way to offend anyone. I may have been unclear with the "stupid religion" comment, which I have hopefully clarified. But that's the only thing that I think could be considered offensive.At any rate, going out of your way to offend them is not the answer.
Especially when this all started because the suggestion "doesn't want to be gay despite his repressed feelings" was made into a funny title. It has a bit of truth to it so can be considered valid. I don't think religion has to come into it. I don't see why religious views are treated as a set of moral views with the added benefit of acting as a shield.
You've sidestepped the point so far you've hit it on the rebound. The thing that was deliberately offensive was the title suggestion. Sarcastro was suggesting the title because he knew hasdgfas would react badly to it. I don't really think there's any other interpretation. If he didnt realise that, he's an idiot, and I don't think Sarc is an idiot.
If you start mocking a fat kid because he's fat, will that help any? Will that not make the situation worse? What do you gain from it? Scoring points? Sarc scored points, sure. But he did it in a completely inapproppriate manner.
No, but that's beside the point. If someone insulted you by saying you had an a in your name, though, that would be akin to the situation.If my religion said all people with the letter "A" in their name were descended from whores, would my religion protect me from being held accountable?
Urm, I think this is off-topic. To answer the first line, though, it's how much it means to people. Religion is supposed to be the answer to life. When you are religious, your religion defines you. You can't go around attacking people for their religions. That's intolerance, and cruelty. Sure, religions have done it too, but that doesn't give you any right to attack him.
What the hell makes religion so special anyway? There's no way I think I should pussyfoot around something because circular logic is believed by a lot of people. In mafia games we deal with circular logic all the time, I didn't expect many people to actually be religious when all day they see logic exactly like they believe being taken apart so easily.
Bleh. I'm done with this argument. After this, I'm not sure I altogether respect your stance on religion, but that's beside the point.
They should be used to it by now... And no matter how offensive I am seen as being, I am holding back. I'm pussyfooting around it all anyway, just to be nice. And damn, it is taking most of my willpower.