Topic: The shooting in Orlando at Pulse club.

Posted under Off Topic

This topic has been locked.

(attempted to write this in the form of a short op-ed piece / letter to the editor like you'd do for a newspaper).

In these past five years, I have heard about and read about some pretty messed up things happening in the name of religion; Jessica Dutro beat her 4 year old son to death because she believed he acted gay. In France, the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, were attacked by Islamic terrorists retaliating against the paper for publishing a cartoon image of The Prophet Muhammed. Robert Dear, a self-proclaimed anti-abortion activist, went on a shooting spree in a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood building, wounding nine people and killing three. And most recently, Omar Mateen, went on a rampage in a Florida gay club that resulted in the shooting deaths of 50 people.

I am not sure how I can say what I want to say without coming across as "anti-theist" rather than simply "atheist," but my opinion is that the only thing that separates a "moderate" person of religious faith from a person of the "extremist fanatic" persuasion is an ability to brush off some of the more crazy sounding rules and commands from their ancient myth books and acknowledge it as silly nonsense made up by people who didn't understand their world and how things work. Unfortunately, the stuff that people seem most determined to keep are the things that give a free pass to their personal prejudices, such as "thou shalt not lie with mankind as womankind." That stuff about not eating shrimp or that stuff about not wearing clothing made of mixed fibers? Oh sure, that's silly. But that stuff about the gays, that stuff is still good, so let's just keep that how it is.

Reading a religious book doesn't always turn someone into a nutjob. I grew up Christian, reading the Bible turned me into an atheist, so I certaintly wouldn't want religious texts banned, or for everyone who owns a Bible or Koran to be put on some government watch list. But what I really would like is for our society to maybe put a greater emphasis on the value of being able to separate reality from fiction. I want a society that takes these stories no more seriously than they would Greek Mythology. Nobody goes around killing in the name of Zeus, because we're taught from an early age that he isn't real.

In a perfect world, our schools totally would teach about Yahweh and Allah, but not as living, breathing entities who need to be appeased, but as fictional creations. In a perfect world, Robert Dear wouldn't have shot up that Planned Parenthood, and Omar Mateen wouldn't have shot up that gay club because they both would have been taught during their formative years that characters from religious books aren't real, just inventions dreamed up by humans to explain things they didn't understand. In a perfect world, we would not be afraid of offending people and bringing their religious wrath upon our heads because we said something critical about their religion or drew a picture of their prophet.

I don't want to take away people's right to believe whatever they want to believe, but I do wish that we as a society had more testicular fortitude, more commen sense and less willingness to kow-tow and placate people out of a fear of retribution for having offended them. In our quest to be ultra-tolerant, even of the most insane beliefs, we make ourselves appear as doormats to the people who very much wish to walk all over us. I won't be one of those doormats, I will call it like I see it and I hope others will do the same.

Updated by NotMeNotYou

ok but what the shooting has to do with religion? because if i have understood correctly, he did not shoot those people for religious reasons, he shot them just because he was homophobe and pissed about the existence of gays.

Updated by anonymous

Mutisija said:
ok but what the shooting has to do with religion?

Of course... and Westboro Baptist Church never had anything to do with religion either, it was all just Fred Phelps' "toxic masculinity" driving him, and not his Calvinist teachings and reading the Bible and taking it super serious, right?

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-orlando-nightclub-shooting-live-updates-htmlstory.html

Guess Omar wasn't really a super serious Muslim who thought gays should die because Allah commands it, he just was a macho cis-het shitlord. He didn't really mean to claim allegiance to ISIS and Hezbolah.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/orlando-shooting-omar-mateen-father-seddique-mateen-taliban-god-punish-gays/

Yeah, the fact that Omar's daddy supports the Taliban, that doesn't mean anything, nah.

Updated by anonymous

Mana_Dragon_Flammie said:
I won't be one of those doormats, I will call it like I see it and I hope others will do the same."/section"

agreed and i would've made a thread on this myself but...you covered the topic much better than i could.

edit:

Mutisija said:
ok but what the shooting has to do with religion? because if i have understood correctly, he did not shoot those people for religious reasons, he shot them just because he was homophobe and pissed about the existence of gays.

while i'm not entirely sure if this is relevant to this particular incident. might it be worth noting that in islamic law, apparently the killing of homosexuals is seen as a merciful and compassionate act towards them?

(know what, screw it, i don't care enough to be nice when talking about these people. neg me if you want.) how the heck can anyone be so backwards as to think murder is an act of mercy and/or compassion?

that's just sick. if people want something to get offended over, get offended by real problems like that.

i can scarcely even imagine the horrors those people in the middle east witness as children while growing up over there. well, those that live what could be considered a relatively normal life.

not those who are psychologically ruined by ISIS having them commit executions for them. ain't nothing going to be able to fix those poor kids minds.

and then we have obama who can't utter the words "islamic extremists" (likely out of fear of sounding islamaphobic or some other bs).

is it spelled islamiphobic or islamaphobic? i'm not sure which.

Updated by anonymous

He may have been shooting gays but his bullets were flying pretty straight

Updated by anonymous

What could go wrong with a topic like that?

Everything, that's what.

We aren't a news site, discuss this topic someplace else.

Updated by anonymous

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