Some of y’all let your personal negative experiences within a religion make you as dogmatic in your hatred against faith as the very people you rail against and tbh I think that’s a shame.

Consider that what made faith traumatic for you wasn’t the faith itself but the abusive people/centralized authority who used that faith as an excuse to do harm, and blaming it on something as huge, complex and nuanced as an entire belief system doesn’t actually address that harm

In fact, saying “X religion (or religion in general) is inherently violent” does a lot of work to help protect those who do harm within a religion, because it turns out abusive people in the faith are also saying that their violence is a central part of the faith.

^^ when that happens, people who don’t want to be part of or subject to that abuse, but find their faith to be central to their sense of self, are essentially told they have to choose between being abused, or leaving their faith, when that’s simply not the case.

It turns out that people will use whatever excuses are handy to justify the harm they wish to do and the power they wish to wield. From faith to the humanities to science. We need to speak to that abuse clearly and specifically, not get reactionary ourselves.

Anyway. If I see you saying reductionistic shit like X religion is violent or that we need to burn bibles or some shit like that, you’re getting blocked. I have comrades of all faiths, and I see it as my responsibility to make them all feel seen and welcome in the struggle.