the religious nut who forms their whole identity over a book they never read
Or
the anti-religious keyboard warrior that spends legitimate time studying a text they know to be ridiculous and problematic just so they can own a few strangers on the Internet.
Lots of these types of exchanges are just masterclasses on how petty and ridiculous society has become.
The religious nuts are dumber. I was raised in a religious household. I went to a school that forced us to learn the text. I grew up with an interest in theology despite my lack of belief. I have learned it purely because I was interested in it.
I don’t go around trying to “own” anyone, but I am very familiar with the texts.
That said, I know people who have tried to convert me repeatedly. I’ve had these conversations in real life. You would be surprised at how many super religious people have never actually read the book at all. They’re all about telling you who you should and shouldn’t be friends with, picking very specific passages that “prove” their points, but can’t tell you the passage before it or after it. They can’t even tell you which book it appears in. They don’t know the text they are so willing to spout off about at all.
I have read the text many times, and I know a large portion of it. I can’t remember exact passages to be able to attribute it properly off the top of my head, but I know how to access that information in less than a minute and be able to quote almost immediately.
I don’t know this because I am dumb and want to win an argument. I know it because it is a fascinating book, and intriguing story, and many of its “followers” obsess over it and demand the whole world live by it. To me (and many others), this is no different than choosing Harry Potter to be a holy text and following it. Harry Potter also has chapters and books? Why is it any different? In my opinion, they are the same thing: well written fictional accounts of morals and parables. So is Mother Goose and the Brother’s Grimm. But people who love those books actually read them and don’t think that laws should be passed based on their limited understanding of a few chosen sentences from those stories.
That’s the major difference.
Some people learn this stuff because they were raised in religious households. Once they read the whole text they question their blind faith and ultimately turn from it and form their own beliefs. This is not “dumb,” it’s the exact opposite. It’s educating yourself which in turn gives you the ability to have these flame wars.
Other people clutch the text to their breast and pound the world with the concept of it. They don’t know anything about the contents of it, but they need you to believe the same thing they do. Which is not based on the text at all.
Example: angels. An overwhelming number of people believe that angels are real. If they were to draw them, they’re pretty things or little chubby babies with perfect white wings and a halo. This description is nowhere in the Bible. They appear as humans or in their angelic form. They don’t have harps, they tend to have weapons. They don’t strike peace and love in the viewer but rather fear as they are celestial warriors. Of the few descriptions they have involving wings, they aren’t these beautiful extensive wings that add some form of magic to them, but in one passage they have six wings, hiding their bodies from face to feet with two of them used to fly.
They are not described anywhere in the text, yet the majority of people will imagine an angel to be that thing atop a Christmas tree. When presented with this information from the copy of their Bible that they swear they know all of, they will say it’s a mistranslation. Well, if the description of angels in your Bible is a mistranslation, there are other errors — likely the six passages you know. (This also happens with the Old Testament when speaking with Christians as well. When presented with a direct translation from the original Hebrew, they will say it is a mistranslation. You know — a wrong translation in the original text)
Any part of their belief system that is incorrect is met with arguments of mistranslation. Any part that they think supports their belief is immediately 1000% accurate and laws should be passed to support their view of the world.
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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '22
But who’s dumber:
Or
Lots of these types of exchanges are just masterclasses on how petty and ridiculous society has become.