--I have my position and it is as established for me as well as any you have for yourself...as well as I believe that freedom is good and rationality is good and prejudice is bad...
Let’s talk about that. According to dictionary.com:
prej•u•dice P Pronunciation Key (pr j -d s)
n.
1.
a. An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts.
b. A preconceived preference or idea.
2. The act or state of holding unreasonable preconceived judgments or convictions. See Synonyms at predilection.
3. Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, or religion.
Detriment or injury caused to a person by the preconceived, unfavorable conviction of another or others.
Have you met any of the criteria for prejudice? Lessee here. On point 1. of the definition:
I just don't like the socialization and social support and reinforcement of what is in my estimation a heinous institution...
Now, you don’t really know for sure that your friends will be goose stepping at their event, but you assume it’ll be horrible. No, worse than horrible, *heinous*. Now, you did say you’ve been to similar types of events, and I didn’t get clarification on whether those occurred at this same temple/church/mosque/whatever. My bad, but it hardly seems to matter when you’ve already decided it will be heinous.
On point 1. b.
I don't think you just give up on people because they have been brain-washed
So now your friends are not only engaging in heinous behavior, but they are brainwashed as well? Is it that they are brainwashed, or that you’re so inherently negative towards their family tradition that *you* just see it that way.
On point 2.
those are my core values --too bad you can't handle that some people have values that might differ from yours...
Yep, I called you on 2 points of discussion that made no sense. First of all, why was there a discussion if you’d already made up your mind, and two, why would you hang out with people that do ‘heinous’ things. All of the sudden you shift midstream into an unsupported diatribe about how I may or may not view other people’s values. Well, I can’t say you made any friends there…but yet I still tried to get you to learn something…
On point 3.
as to it being like the KKK -fundamentally it is as rational as the KKK- which is to say it is based on an unjustified arbitrary belief that makes them feel good—
Now *this* is the scary point. You have in your own mind demonized an entire group of people. In fact, your distain is so clear you use words like ‘heinous’, ‘prejudice’, ‘superstition’, ignorant’ and so forth. Yet in the same breath you keep telling me not to talk about how good or bad religion is when *you* are the only one doing so. You have clearly expressed your personal bias here, in fact, it’s greater than a bias, it is prejudice. You HATE religion. You HATE that people are religious, so much so that you would subject your own children to a negative experience so that they might never become tempted to become religious. Your view is extreme, and when one is so extreme in the manner in which you have demonstrated, it is literally impossible to be rational or to employ critical thinking.
BTW, one last beef. You keep putting me in the position of somehow saying that religion is good, even though there is not one quotable piece of evidence to support that. You assigned a ‘personality’ to me, that of antagonist, most likely ‘religious supporter antagonist.’ So if you got flamed pretty hard yesterday, it was because of that…and your inability to acknowledge your own lack of rational thinking. Look, mate, I don’t give a hoot if you go to the barmitvahchristiningbaptismwhaddaeva. What I do care about is that you have a chip on your shoulder the size of Montana, and like an ostrich with his head stuck in the sand, you insist it ain’t there. You can’t even begin to be rational if you’re not honest with yourself. *shrug*
