binocular wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:46 am
retrofuturist wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:16 amPersonally, I'm not inclined to prohibit any subject of conversation, so long as behaviour of those involved in the conversation adheres to the parameters of the Terms of Service. But nonetheless, as this topic demonstrates, people complain when others dare to mention Islam in anything less than a flattering light, so in my official capacity I do feel somewhat obliged to poke around and see if there's something that could be done to alleviate the angst. Hence the questions...
I doubt anything can alleviate that angst [edit: or moral and emotional panic], because that angst seems to be linked to people's most fundamental questions and fears about life, the meaning of life, justice, and other such fundamental issues.
For a person who hasn't resolved those questions and fears, anything that triggers them will be problematic. Whether it's a discussion of religion, or crime rates, or climate change, etc.
And Abrahamic religions (with their religious elitism and threat of eternal damnation) in general address or provoke many people's worst fears and questions. Currently, it's Islam, Muslims, and the discussion about them that is so provoking for many such people (while if such a person were to live in central Europe in the 15th, 16th, 17th century, that would be Catholicism, for example).
So I think this whole thing about disparaging other religions isn't really about those other religions or about disparaging them, but about having unresolved existential questions and fears, and feeling incapable of doing something about them, or resenting to do something about them.
Once in a discussion of a socio-political topic in a general secular forum, a Hare Krishna devotee made an interesting comment. Namely, some posters were very much upset over some issue, and after some discussion of it, the devotee said something like, "Apparently, you haven't come to terms with living in a dangerous world." The reaction of the other posters was telling -- mostly amounting to "Who are you to say such things?!" and getting outraged. I think he made a vital point, though.