Reply To: Reeling from Christian friend's bigotry

[DrBob]

@Strega, poisonous critters are just critters. Some of them are cute, and many are even friendly. 😉

Nope, I don’t “deflect to” fundamentalists, I just take the time to learn and understand different people and different groups, so as to be able to make thoughtful and rational distinctions. I admit that requires intellectual effort, patience, and a sense of fairness. So @Davis quoting biblical lines for justification sola scriptura above is fundamentalist.

But mostly, and unforgivably, your religions are used to scare children into compliance. “God is watching you, so don’t xxxxxxxxxx or you will have xxxxxxxx happen to you”.

Are you perhaps mixing up God and Santa Claus? Making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty or nice… Somehow I don’t see Santa as unforgivably scaring children into compliance. At least I don’t think most children would agree with you.

As for saying something like “don’t mouth off to your mother or you will have being grounded for the week happen to you”, that doesn’t sound terribly egregious. It just sounds like being a parent.

Are you sure the position you’re staking out is a rationally defensible one?