Religion, commerce and the ire of the illiberal idiot.
Every few weeks, some hapless soul starts a thread on the English Forum seeking islamic accommodation, kosher chocolate, a church which observes the Saturday sabbath or some other niche product of a religious nature.
Invariably, such threads attract angry people who proclaim that religious people should keep their beliefs to themselves, that others shouldn't pander to their selfish needs, that such nonsense should be kept out of sight of normal folk, and so on and so forth.
One rarely sees such a viscerally vicious reaction to requests for information about a particular kind of football shirt, English language television, or playgroups for toddlers.
If there is a demand for something, somebody will offer it. It doesn't matter whether the product is a doughnut blessed by the Dalai Lama or an evening of meditation with the Clangers: where people want it, it will be sold. This is a pretty fundamental principle of commerce, surely?
Could one of the angry brigade, therefore, explain why religious products should be exempt from this simple exchange of commodities?
I eagerly await your responses.
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Re: Religion, commerce and the ire of the illiberal idiot.
Quote:
Every few weeks, some hapless soul starts a thread on the English Forum seeking islamic accommodation, kosher chocolate, a church which observes the Saturday sabbath or some other niche product of a religious nature.
Invariably, such threads attract angry people who proclaim that religious people should keep their beliefs to themselves, that others shouldn't pander to their selfish needs, that such nonsense should be kept out of sight of normal folk, and so on and so forth.
One rarely sees such a viscerally vicious reaction to requests for information about a particular kind of football shirt, English language television, or playgroups for toddlers.
If there is a demand for something, somebody will offer it. It doesn't matter whether the product is a doughnut blessed by the Dalai Lama or an evening of meditation with the Clangers: where people want it, it will be sold. This is a pretty fundamental principle of commerce, surely?
Could one of the angry brigade, therefore, explain why religious products should be exempt from this simple exchange of commodities?
I eagerly await your responses.
Yes!!!!
Any info to Leni @............
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Re: Religion, commerce and the ire of the illiberal idiot.
If I should ever come to a point in my life where I felt the need to come up with an imaginary friend, give up my own thinking, and let some greedy institution decide over what's good or bad, I would probably start by worshiping Pat Condell.
He also has some answers to your questions:
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Re: Religion, commerce and the ire of the illiberal idiot.
The very mention of religion is enough to bring out the snarling monster in some people. And yet they fail to appreciate that their intolerance of the views and beliefs of others is not a million miles away from the radical religionists e.g. Hizb-ut Tahrir, Westboro Baptist Church etc..
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Re: Religion, commerce and the ire of the illiberal idiot.
Well, I start to think recently that we have a new kind of fanatic, not religious, but exactly on the other way.. the fanatic atheists, and other thing I found in some of my atheistic fanatic friends is that most of them come from families that originally used to be fanatic about the religion until they break with it. I'm not against any way of think, so not against atheists or theists, but I'm sure we must respect everyone doesn't matter their religion political view, or even the team they support in the end the solution will not be no religions, and no countries, because naturally people organize themselves in groups, so even if all borders would collapse and our religions banned, still people would be divided among different political views, teams, families, sexuality, ages...
The only solution is respect among all those different groups.
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Re: Religion, commerce and the ire of the illiberal idiot.
By the way,religious people should keep their beliefs to themselves, others shouldn't pander to their selfish needs and such nonsense should be kept out of sight of normal folk.
Where can I get doughnuts blessed by the Dalai Lama in Switzerland?
I eagerly await your responses.
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By the way,religious people should keep their beliefs to themselves, others shouldn't pander to their selfish needs and such nonsense should be kept out of sight of normal folk.
Where can I get doughnuts blessed by the Dalai Lama in Switzerland?
I eagerly await your responses.
The pizzeria near my house does a mean cannelloni blessed by the flying spaghetti monster
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Re: Religion, commerce and the ire of the illiberal idiot.
Quote:
One rarely sees such a viscerally vicious reaction to requests for information about a particular kind of football shirt, English language television, or playgroups for toddlers.
Maybe because the number of deaths and the amount of detriment to human progress directly attributable to religion exceeds that of football, TV and playgroups put together and multiplied by a million...so maybe some people feel strongly when religion begins to expand into relatively harmless/neutral things such as chocolates.
Quote:
If there is a demand for something, somebody will offer it. It doesn't matter whether the product is a doughnut blessed by the Dalai Lama or an evening of meditation with the Clangers: where people want it, it will be sold. This is a pretty fundamental principle of commerce, surely?
Could one of the angry brigade, therefore, explain why religious products should be exempt from this simple exchange of commodities?
I eagerly await your responses.
Some products and services such as caviar, the trade of skins and furs, certain methods of slaughter, certain sports such as bull-fighting hurt people's sensibilities and attract revulsion. Not to mean one is right and the other is wrong, but people have a right to express displeasure. Like in India which is Hindu-doninated, it is illegal to kill a cow for food, it has nothing to do with compassion, but purely on religious grounds. In some places prostitution is illegal, and in most places child pornography is illegal. So, no, the argument that so long as there is a market, anything can be sold freely, isn't respected everywhere, and religion is no exception.
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The very mention of religion is enough to bring out the snarling monster in some people. And yet they fail to appreciate that their intolerance of the views and beliefs of others is not a million miles away from the radical religionists e.g. Hizb-ut Tahrir, Westboro Baptist Church etc..
I just have to agree with you, i rarely get angry and if it is about religion i cant stop my emotions.
Speaking of tolerance, why it is so hard for people just to respect religions of others?
Re: Religion, commerce and the ire of the illiberal idiot.
It's funny that during many centuries all religions tried to ban literature, play, music, movie that was considered as not proper for commerce as it was devil's work
Secular society means religious beliefs and habits are hidden in public space. The only way to be confronted with such specific demands is through specialized media (religious radio stations, newspaper, web site, TV channel, communities) targeted to religious-affine audience. The problem is that EF targets a broad audience of english speaking with some swiss ties and does not differentiate religious from secular. Therefore the happy secular lad comes here with the strong belief that this a public space (i.e. secular) and finds himself in the unusual situation of being involuntary confronted with religion related demands. What a shock! Kindly remind the said person that this a broad audience online forum with different types of audience.
__________________ Resist, support, donate: ACLU They tried to bury us, they did not know that we are seeds (Mexican proverb)
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Oh no. It's monday. It's been a long and arduous day... Can't we talk about nail polish instead?
It`s Full Moon Time!
That is the only explanation.
I (and my entire village population, I do believe) were subjected to an "Electronic Festival" ...... from 8km away - from 4pm on Saturday - nonstop - until 4pm Sunday, this last weekend.
Dwooomph dwooomph dwooomph.......I thought Trance Dance went out at least 10 years ago...?
Having dropped the sharp prongs of a pruning shears into my foot on Saturday, I had thump-thump-thump pain throbbing ... got up to make a cup of tea at 1am Sunday morning ... went outside to enjoy the full moon .... and thought the neighbors were still partying (the noise was SO loud) - okay, so I was tolerant and did not call the Polizei.
By 9am Sunday morning I imagined the neighbors were lying dead and their music was still thumping .........(noise to smother the sounds of their death throes?)........ aaaahhhhhhhh ....... NEIN ... I discovered a small little advert ........ Electronic Festival in Ampitheater ........
What was this thread about again .........? noise? religion? ire...? Tolerance .....?
By the way,religious people should keep their beliefs to themselves, others shouldn't pander to their selfish needs and such nonsense should be kept out of sight of normal folk.
Where can I get doughnuts blessed by the Dalai Lama in Switzerland?
I eagerly await your responses.
I partially agree, I hate it when my cousin comes to visit and starts praying after lunch and reading the bible and having secret meetings in my house that I happen to forget and go for a nap...that is impossing your beliefs, but askign where to find kosher chocolate is like asking where can I find brown sugar (albeit not that common a question) and no one is impossing their beliefs really...to me they are asking an honest question. Why do people get so offended? I do not see it.
Besides, this is not only seen in religious threads, if I remember correctly, I asked where I could find slim fast stuff and I also got judged by that, when I only asked where can I find it and not do you think it is a good idea? Really...
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