Carrying the Idiot Ball

[alasdair1076]

   I’m pathologically liberal, despite an upbringing in one of the last pockets of the 1950s left on the planet.  The Isle of Man is a tiny community halfway between England and Ireland and, by dint of its presence in the centre of a pretty hostile environment, it’s very conservative.  Gay rights were a huge issue when I was growing up there, to

Comments

[thirstypixel]

I know that you are not an idiot, on account of having met and spoken to you. Among those who have done the same, I suspect that this view is very widely held.

It is an abiding characteristic of all views of religion that whatever our beliefs, we can easily be placed in a category with those whom we would oppose to the last breath and made accountable to some small degree for their actions. If you ever catch me doing this to you, try asking me what recompense I plan to make for the Chinese Great Leap Forward or Soviet Collective Farming. I'll take the point, promise.

[rhube]

Thanks for this, it was interesting, and well-written. I rarely ask my religious friends about their faith, because I have a history of that going sour - being taken as a challenge, or an excuse to try and convert me. I don't expect this to result from the vast majority of my friends, that would be disrespectful, but I've been surprised, in the past, and generally I don't think it matters what people believe in that area, so I'm happy if they're happy with their beliefs. With the best of intentions, there are reasons why I'm an atheist, and other people I know are Jewish, Christian, Hindi, and so forth, which have a tendency to come out badly if expressed even a little bit wrong

[krylyr]

Wow. Thank you so much for posting this. Kindred spirit here, man. On so many different levels.

Working in genre fiction and being the level of religious I am is very hard some times, because at least twice a year, without fail, someone will open their mouth and insert their entire foot and then there’ll be a stampede of condemnation that starts out deserved and ends up lumping anyone with religious beliefs into the same category. Which is, of course, almost as stupid and offensive as the sweeping generalisations of the fundamentalists themselves.Man, I hear *this*. I work less in the genre than you do, but I try to defuse these things when I come across it by confronting the person's claim, or explaining not everyone who considers themselves a member of the faith believes that. But it's still so incredibly frustrating and often I come out wondering if what I said made any difference at all. And I wonder if I don't lose a little of my own faith in the process (more faith in the church than faith, I guess

[house_of_scatha]

Not entirely sure what to say, except hang in there. I know you and I believe different things, and I've always respected the fact that was cool with both of us. (I also remember feeling like a right prick when you were being extremely nice to a Harry Krishna in the pit of your former employee while I was all ready to be curt - kind of taught me a lesson in what real manners are, and what real tolerance is

[jaxotea]

Just to add another voice of support to those above (if less eloquently