M.I.N.I.O.N.

• Stop lumping all forms of Christianity into one homogenous mass. It is bigoted.
• Stop treating all Christians as a homogenous group. It is bigoted.
• Stop lumping all atheists into one homogenous group. It is bigoted.
• Stop treating all atheists as if they were trying to take away your freedom of religion/trying to personally oppress you/need to be “fixed”. It is bigoted and willfully ignorant of the real position of religion in the US.
• Stop lumping all forms of Islam into one homogenous mass. It is bigoted.
• Stop treating all Muslims as a homogenous group. It is bigoted.
• Stop treating mythology as a “fairy story” that people “told themselves before they had science”. It shows how little you understand about mythology and automatically disqualifies you from having a useful opinion.
• Stop treating all religions as one homogenous mass. You’re usually only referring to the extreme elements of the Abrahamic religions, and it is multiple levels of bigoted.
• Stop treating all science as if it is the antithesis of religion. There are a good many religious scientists. They have reconciled their beliefs with their work. Take a cue from that and comprehend the possibility that these things can coexist.
• Stop treating all religion as if were everyone’s final truth. Your religion is your truth, and that’s fine. If someone asks, please share with them. You may even have a mandate, that you feel is a deep and important aspect of your faith, to proselytize. I hope you feel free, in the US anyway, to bring your faith up, but I also hope you feel free to recognize when someone is not interested. People are allowed to talk about their religion. People are also allowed to ignore those talking and/or ask them to stop. This is the crux of freedom of religion.
• Stop treating religion as if it were the perfect screen for your heterosexism/cissexism/racism. It’s not. That’s just being bigoted.
• Stop treating atheism as if it were the perfect screen for your heterosexism/cissexism/racism. It’s not. That’s just being bigoted.
• Stop treating the opinions of zealots as if they were the perfect rebuke against someone you disagree with. Zealots have a history of ignoring what doesn’t suit them in order to sound more “right”. It will rub off on you, and you will be acting like a bigot. (Please note: This includes both religious - Rick Santorum - and atheist - Richard Dawkins - zealots.)
• Stop treating “religion” as your personal pissing pot. It generally just shows you to be ignorant, bigoted, and small-minded.
• Stop treating “atheism” as your personal pissing pot. It generally just shows you to be ignorant, bigoted, and small-minded.
• Stop acting as though mythos and mythology mean only false. It shows that you’ve not bothered to do your reading.
• Stop acting as though scientific terms mean the same thing as they do in common usage. “Theory” may leave open a lot of wiggle room in daily English, but in science it means a hypothesis with a whole lot of evidentiary support. Stop trying to act like you don’t know the difference in context. It is duplicitous.
• Stop acting as though religious ceremony is just a bunch of rigamarole designed to distract the faithful while they’re being fleeced or mind-controlled. It is bigoted. It also shows a distinct lack of understanding of the function of ritual for humans. You automatically remove yourself from any kind of worthwhile opinion when you do this.
• Stop acting as though you are superior because you’re an atheist. You are human, and you have human failings the same as anyone.
• Stop acting as though you are superior because you’re religious. You are human, and you have human failings the same as anyone.
• Stop being bigots, everyone.

Look. I get it that many groups are marginalized in various ways and in various areas, but returning bigotry with bigotry only keeps and endless cycle of stupid going. By all means, if someone is being a bigot, reply with as much anger as you like, they deserve it, but remember that if you package that anger in hatred and bigotry, you’re playing down to their level, and you’re surely losing a little bit, even if you “win”.

I understand that I’m asking a lot of tumblr, but this is mostly a message to my followers.

(Before anyone gets all bent out of shape about what I do or don’t know about science or religion, please read through my archives to see how much I’m a fan of science and please also note that I have a Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, one of the foremost religious studies institutions in the country.)