Category : Anti-theism
"Why can't we all get along?"
It's a sentiment I hear an awful lot, a lot more than I would like to, in discussion surrounding the harm of idea's and beliefs. Its a phrase often accompanied with many other clichéd sentiments like "you shouldn't attack peoples beliefs" or "Judge someone's actions, not their opinions" and so on and so forth until the word "ACCOMMODATE!" is practically being written in the sky in 100ft exploding letters. Its the idea that until someone starts doing something wrong (such as flying planes into buildings) We should let them believe any falsehood, hold any ideal, express any opinion without criticizing it because that's just too confrontational, too personal, or we might even (gasp!) take away the comfort that the individual found in those beliefs.
Let me be very clear in my rebuttal - That is Absolute Bullshit.
But the funniest thing, the most ironic thing, is that damn near every single person I know who has expressed such an accommadationist stance has ALSO been known to take a very antithetical stance to such "idea's, beliefs and opinions" that include
Racism
Sexism
Homophobia
Pro-war
Anti-Abortion
Pro-Capital Punishment
Etc, etc, etc.
And Yet when it comes to religious beliefs, to supernatural opinions, all of a sudden you are told that THOSE beliefs are off limits! "Where's the Irony?", I hear you ask; Religions across thousands of years have propagated, justified and defended all the beliefs that I have just listed under a single umbrella. Its a little bit like being an environmentalist, who hates companies that cut corners, who thinks that drilling for oil is wrong...but then going out of your way to defend BP.
It is about time that Accommodationists realized the hypocrisy of their stance and stopped looking down from their ivory towers whilst yelling at the people below to stop hunting Elephants.
If they want to tell me that people should let people believe whatever the hell they want without fear of it being attacked? Fine! But I expect you to stop attacking bigotry when you see it, I expect you to be able to get along with someone who thinks you're inherently inferior because of your skin pigmentation, and not only that, I expect you to defend every sexist, racist, Homophobic individual who has ever had their beliefs challenged. After all, as long as they don't ACT upon it, they can believe what they want without fear of reprimand, right? We've got to accommodate views we completely disagree with, right?
It does not matter how much comfort a belief brings to someone, it does not matter whether they're physically harming someone by holding their beliefs, it does not matter how "nice" the individual who holds the belief is - Nothing bars you from criticism, from mockery, from having your beliefs held under the worlds biggest spotlight so that people can prod and poke around to see just how valid or vacuous or disgusting it is.
Also, just as I quick Side note. It's also funny how Accommodationists, in their attempt to justify their stance, often erroneously try to point out that Religion "Inspired" or "Invented" Things like "Don't murder" or "Don't Steal" or any other law/rule/social ideal that is deemed a pillar of a moral society - That is absolute Bullshit too and only serves to underline their ignorance of Morality, or the rise of moral law within Civilisation.
Religion didn't invent, or inspire anything of the sort, it does what it has always done; Assimilate something it had nothing to do with into its dogma and claim all the credit.
