Religion is a choice, race is not. It is reasonable to judge someone by what they choose, but not by what skin colour they are born with. Culture is somewhere in between. It is a bunch of habits we pick up from our parents and friends when we are children. In that sense it is something we are born with. However, we can easily choose to drop those aspects of our culture that we do not agree with.

Marriage is a deeply personal choice and any sort of discrimination is fine. All is fair in love and war.

For most religious people it is a conscious choice. Religion is not a bunch of stuff you do.

lapaz62 wrote on May 19^th, 2008 at 9:22pm:


Yeah, i'll agree with you on that one.

Faith and going to worship are both learned experiences, do you think the little Talibans running around have been given a non- biased view of the world.

lapaz62 wrote on May 19^th, 2008 at 7:05pm:


When it comes to marrying someone or even having sex with them, I don't see the problem with being extremely discriminating. (Everybody is)  People will naturally go for 'good sorts' or people who  are compatible in some way.

The kind of discrimination that is illegal, and should continue to be illegal is vilification because of a characteristic such as age, sex, sexual orientation or race, or choosing somebody for a job because of race, religious or some other basis that has no bearing on their aptitude for the job.

It beats me what drives people to be racist. If you don't want to marry the other person, what's the big deal? Let them get on with their life. We're all different anyway.

I haven't quite got my head around racism. I just can't understand it, because I've always regarded people who are different to me with a sense of curiousity, as opposed to hostility. The whole idea of being aggressive towards somebody because they are different is  extremely foreign to me, but I think it comes down to the perceived haves and have-nots. I think it's basically an economic phobia. There is a concern that groups will develop in isolation and ethnic businesses will deal with other groups of the same ethnicity. Ultimately I think it comes down to trust. 

I wish there were some 'intelligent' racists around here that could explain what it's actually all about, but I guess there's no such thing as an 'intelligent racist'. Maybe we're getting at the root of the problem. It could be just a question of education level.

freediver wrote on May 20^th, 2008 at 6:51pm:

That 'truism', is totally dependent on how you define "force"
Many, including myself, would consider indoctrination with religious (delusional) beliefs, from birth, is a form of coercion.
It boils down to the basic carrot and stick training.
Follow our teachings and you receive, eternal happiness beyond your wildest dreams, do not accept them, and suffer eternal damnation, beyond your worst nightmares.

Doing that to kids is just smacking sick.
I despise religion with a passion.

Why anyone needs to externalise and objectify a personal spirituality is possibly human, but certainly not divine.