Matt, perhaps you can give me some insight on something I’ve been noticing for a long time. Whenever Islam is criticized, especially in light of tragedies like the one that just happened, the usual response I see is basically “Christians have done bad things too! It says in the bible to stone gays to death! Why aren’t you bashing Christianity?!” Like… what is the point of this? Are they just trying to shut down the conversation? Why do the atrocities of one religion excuse those of another?
I have a few theories.
Because bashing Christianity has been safe for decades so when criticizing religion comes up its the first thing that comes to simple peoples minds.
Or people are just more familiar with christianity so their criticisms of it are more prevalent and ingrained in our reactionary “fuck you dad” culture. No surprise that most of the people that defend Islam have never read a word of Islamic doctrine and just take Obama and Buzzfeed at their word that it’s a peaceful doctrine.
It’s all about the narrative people are exposed to that the only two religions that exist are Christianity and Islam and one is the religion of those evil white oppressors and the other is the religion of the poor misunderstood oppressed brown folks. And thats all that matters not the actual theologies or what they produce…no those don’t matter.
Then there are the people who just wouldn’t know what to do with the information if it turned out Islam was violent so they pretend it isn’t. Like when Maddox argued that there was no reason to even check the doctrine at all because there was nothing that could be done about it if it was the problem. Hearing that irrational head in the sand argument wasn’t the first time I disagreed with him but it was the first time I was genuinely disappointed in him.
Plus it’s the neckbeard level evangelical atheists who use their atheism as a thinly veiled excuse to just hate christians, because they’re projecting their negative childhood experiences with a christian parent. Those people get upset whenever you are not shit talking christians. So shit talking Islam is just a reminder to them that christians are not the ones being bashed right now and it makes them upset.
Or they bought into this completely intellectually bankrupt idea that all religion is the same and should be all treated exactly the same regardless of the actual content or actions of the group. No it’s all just fairy tales so there is no difference to those mental midgets. It’s the same level of willful blindness feminists have to force on themselves to pretend men and women are exactly the same and every perceived difference is a social construct.
It’s fucking ridiculous how many atheists I see having to defend christianity because so many stupid people respond to any criticism of islam with what about teh christians?
It’s an appeal to hypocrisy fallacy and an especially stupid one at that because most of the time it’s not even a fucking christian they are arguing with. I’m sick of having to talk about christianity everytime a muslim kills people.
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