idiggory wrote:
And what the Christian and Jew are forbidden from doing is only what can be enforced--such as going to church or temple. An atheist can't really walk into his "There is no god" cocktail party. :/
Um... And this is your first hint as to why Atheists are less persecuted. Their beliefs do not require actions which can easily be either detected nor prohibited. Until someone invents a mind reading device that can determine if someone is sufficiently sincere about their faith in a given religion, the Atheist is pretty darn safe from most forms of persecution out there.
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Christians are one of the least persecuted religious groups.
You know this? Or you believe it and refuse to even consider that you might just be wrong?
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Seriously. 4 of the seven continents are nearly devoid of persecution against them.
And how about we count the populations of those 4 compared to the other 3?
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In most of Asia, they are only persecuted to the same degree as other religions.
False. Do you just make this stuff up? "Asia" includes the middle east, India, China, and Indonesia. While there are areas of Asia where there is little or no persecution of Christians (northern Asia is pretty much it and it's by far the least populated portion of Asia), the overwhelming majority of nations which engage in habitual and often violent persecution of Christians are in Asia.
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They only face real persecution in the mid-east and parts of Africa/polynesia.
Er? Ok. Making odd distinctions there. We're actually kinda ignoring Australia also. I'll point out that population issue again though.
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Muslims are persecuted WAY more than Christians (in terms of population AND percentage).
Muslims are also being persecuted by other Muslims. Can we simply move to the conclusion that Islam is an incredibly intolerant religion?
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Furthermore, accusing someone of atheism is still a huge threat in many parts of the world. Like "stone to death" threat. There have been a few cases IN AMERICA in the past few years of people being killed because they were atheists--Larry Hooper is an example (feel free to google him).
Is that really the best you can do? One guy killed by a man who was found to be mentally ill.
That's not really persecution. He could just as easily been killed because he liked the wrong TV show or something.
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Algeria denies nearly all rights to atheists.
Iran executes atheists.
In May, a man was killed in Maldives for being an atheist.
Other islamic nations may execute atheists as apostates.
Let's also observe that these are all Islamic countries, where similarly harsh things occur to Christians (and in massively greater numbers).
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So why don't you do some fucking research for once?
Um... Sure. To find the handful of people killed because they are Atheists? And in most of the cases, it's not that some guy who was an Atheist traveled to the country and was arrested, but some local who was raised Muslim denounced his faith. Often they're turned in by their own families. Not unlike what happens to those who convert to Christianity. That's not quite the same thing.
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That claim is actually retarded. Want to know why? Islam classifies atheists as "apostates." Pagans fall in this category too. The Koran orders the death of all apostates.
It also calls for the death of all infidels, which in many interpretations includes Christians and Jews. Surely you are seeing the pattern and perhaps the source of the problem by now?
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Christians and Jews face horrible persecution in many countries, yes, but there are many where they can live without a direct risk of death from the state (if not the people).
I would argue that there are many many more countries in the world were an Atheist could live without fear for his life because of his Atheism than Jews or Christians can live without a similar fear. And I'd be right. You still keep missing the core point. In every one of those counties in which Atheists actually suffer persecution for being Atheists, Christians and Jews suffer the same persecution, in greater numbers, and usually with greater violence.
And in many more countries where Atheists are more or less left alone, Christians and Jews still have persecution in the form of laws which restrict their ability to worship, to build churches, to assemble, to own copies of the bible, or to own property, hold office, gain employment, etc.
It's just plain not a comparable situation, and I'm frankly stunned that anyone thinks it is.
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That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that requiring one religion is not the same as forbidding a single specific different religion. I've made the "singling out" argument numerous times already. Hopefully, you'll get what I'm talking about eventually.
And your argument sucks. Persecution has to do with attacking groups of people. It doesn't have to have anything to do with singling them out. If America stripped the rights of all non-whites, do you REALLY think the proper word to use wouldn't be persecution. And, if you inexplicably do, I'd really like to know what word we SHOULD use in these cases.
You're still not getting it. If America stripped the rights of all non-whites, I'd would find it absurd for someone to argue that Blacks were more persecuted than Latinos. And if in addition to that, the US made it illegal to speak any language other than English, even in your own home, or to teach it to your children, I'd argue even more strongly against the idiot insisting that Black people were just as persecuted as Latinos.
Do you get it yet? We're arguing about degrees. Two posters argued that Atheists were more (or as much, I forget now) persecuted world wide than Christians. That's the absurdity I'm addressing.
They not persecuted "more". They are not persecuted "as much". They are not persecuted even a teeny tiny fraction as much.
[quote]Furthermore, I never said that requiring 1 was forbidding a single specific one. I'm saying that requiring one causes the state to persecute against ALL others.[/quote]
Great! Then why are you arguing with me about this? That's the same thing I've been saying all along.