And therein lies the other problem. Moonies, fundies, Scientologists, crystal-waving pseudo-Wiccan fluffies who claim to be half unicorn, Jesus-freaks and terrorists get all the attention because they're so everfucking loud. Which leaves people of all faiths who actually live by the tenets of that faith in a reasonable way out in the cold. They get shit from the materialist hardcore atheists for the reasons you basically listed above (they're either Jesus freaks or crystal-waving hippies, and el bonzo seco either way), they get shit from people of other faiths because they're not following The One True Way, and then they get shit from people who claim to be of their faith because everyone knows that peace, love and understanding is only possible when everybody agrees that 'our' way is the only way and most of the reasonable people of the 'all under heaven' school of thought advocate a non-judgemental outlook.
Eventually, I think the people who care about the questions find ways to have proper discussions, but it's hard going at the best of times. It doesn't help that everything a reasonable person of any given faith experiences tends to put them off discussing their beliefs with anyone they don't completely trust not to rip their head off or treat them like they're stupid.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2005-12-15 10:48 am (UTC)Eventually, I think the people who care about the questions find ways to have proper discussions, but it's hard going at the best of times. It doesn't help that everything a reasonable person of any given faith experiences tends to put them off discussing their beliefs with anyone they don't completely trust not to rip their head off or treat them like they're stupid.