Only Endless Memory

Friday, August 1, 2008

Anti-Christian Sentiments

I was just reading the Nerdfighter forum and saw something that really bothered me. There was someone that started a thread about looking for Christian Nerdfighters to talk to about being Christian and God. They also added if their were any non-Christian Nerdfighters that wanted to talk about the Bible or God also they could be involved as well.

The first response was that it was the record time that it took for the person to hate the poster. The following threads were almost all posts that were also anti-Christian and various levels of insults and then completely hi-jacking the conversation. While I am not Christian myself, I respect that Christians have the right to their own beliefs even if I do not agree with them myself. I also believe that if you want to reach out to someone who has a belief that you do not agree with, the method to reach them is not by attacking them. It solves nothing.

Attacking someone and being rude and hating them for their beliefs also goes against what being a Nerdfighter is all about to me. Being a Nerdfighter is about accepting differences in people, usually because you have come from a place where you are seen as different and know how it feels to be treated so. I was really saddened to see this blatant disregard for another persons feelings on the forums.

As I said, I do not think that attacking another person for their beliefs is a way to help them change their beliefs if anything, it will strengthen them. It will give the person a feeling of surpassing worthiness by proving that they are "morally superior" to a person that is rude and shows hate to someone attempting to reach out and be friendly. My guess is that the people saying these things are just proving to themselves their own personal strength, but they lack the foresight to see the results of their words and how others see them.

I did make a reply to the post, because I feel that it is important to do what I can when I can. It may not be much and I might get attacked for it, but perhaps the person will think some for me having posted something. If not, I at least tried and feel better for doing my own part. All that each person can do is work with their limited means.

I have seen fundamentalism in many forms and it always saddens me. Most people complain about fundamentalist Christians, but I have also seen pagans that are fundamentalists as well. The attitudes are the same, "my way is right and it is not possible that any other way is right so you are all wrong." Fundamentalism in any form is still fundamentalism.

Living in the New England area, I have seen more then a couple fundamentalist pagans. I have seen a great deal of hypocrisy as well. The Wiccan Rede "And Ye Harm None, Do As Ye Will," is an interesting rule to look at. For those who may need a translation, it basically says, as long as no one is harmed (in any way, that also means controlled against their will and such), you can do pretty much what you want. I have been involved with some rather judgmental pagans that complained because they had an open circle, and the people that came to the circle were uncomfortable because the circle was in an enclosed area and all of the people except for the two of them were smokers.

Smoking, in general, is braking the Wiccan Rede, because people know they are harming themselves by smoking and they also know that the second hand smoke can cause harm to others. Now, even if they do not smoke around non-smokers at all, harming none should include yourself. Just my thoughts on the subject. Sorry about the rant.

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Posted by Badger :: 3:55 PM :: 0 Comments:

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