orthohawk:Unless of course the "weirdness" comes of being a conservative religionist or quirks that arise from one's religious beliefs. Then you may as well be a serial killer as far as some people are concerned.

I wouldn't say that's the case. There are plenty of religion-based Esperanto groups. Maybe they don't hang out online, but at the Movement Fair of the Universala Kongreso, the Atheism society was sharing a table with a couple of Christian societies and everyone got along just fine.

As a member of a conservative religion myself, I've never had a problem, and I've found Esperanto speakers very helpful and accommodating of my dietary restrictions and sabbath-related restrictions on activities.

Benjamino:There are nice people and mean people. And sarcastic people, and people who try to be good but end up doing the wrong thing. There are people with something to prove, and people who feel small and have to compensate. And then finally there are psychopaths. I'm not trying to scare you; that's just the way the world is! Eventually we have to learn how to face it exactly how it is, or we end up becoming what we fear most. After all, it's almost always fear that drives people to do things that hurt others. The rest of the time it's resentment.

Wow, this is gold

Well, Lernu is filled with people who insult, abuse, and degrade religious people (esp, but not just Christians), and even after having dozens of their hate-filled posts deleted they still have an account here.

So if believing in God is being different, then there is very little acceptance on the part of numerous esperantists and standing up to them just gets your posts deleted by the administrators.

Sorry, but if you're looking for mature, tolerant people you're looking in the wrong place.

erinja:As a member of a conservative religion myself, I've never had a problem, and I've found Esperanto speakers very helpful and accommodating of my dietary restrictions and sabbath-related restrictions on activities.

Well, it's silly to avoid certain foods because some made-up God is supposed to get angry if you eat them. I don't see why people should have to go out of their way to accomodate the fantasies of someone who was tricked into believing in a God who kills tens of thousands of people just because they won't chop off their foreskins.

Not insulting anyone in particular, just my opinion about Judaism -- and you're okay with that, right?

Rargos:Well, Lernu is filled with people who insult, abuse, and degrade religious people (esp, but not just Christians), and even after having dozens of their hate-filled posts deleted they still have an account here.

So if believing in God is being different, then there is very little acceptance on the part of numerous esperantists and standing up to them just gets your posts deleted by the administrators.

Sorry, but if you're looking for mature, tolerant people you're looking in the wrong place.

If a large number of religious people feel the same way, maybe you should petition Lernu to create a Religio forum where religious people can chat about issues that affect them and various other matters of spirituality that non-religious people don't seem able to understand.

Then again, if you're going to be just as insulting about Judaism, maybe there's no point! When it comes to debates, having the right to say that you think certain beliefs are wrong seems okay to me though. As for non-medical circumcision, for example, I do think that it's more or less equivalent to 'female genital mutilation'. That doesn't mean I don't like anyone who disagrees with me though, or that I'd necessarily bring this up in a thread that wasn't debating those kind of issues.

I'm pretty OK with it, Rargos. Both you and I live in a country where everyone is entitled to express their opinion, no matter how inaccurate or misguided it is, thanks to people like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haym_Solomon We're also on a forum for a language created by a Jewish eye doctor, who was nice enough to give everyone the grammar and combination of roots necessary to sit around hating religious people. To each their own!

(Shabbat Shalom!)

Hmm, well, getting back on topic, here is my comment to the original author:

Most of the time everything works out and people are nice. It doesn't hurt to go and just be a wallflower the entire time. Sometimes it's more fun that way.

Just avoid bringing up politics and religion. As you can probably see, it tends to devolve any conversation (or internet thread) when it comes up...

erinja:

orthohawk:Unless of course the "weirdness" comes of being a conservative religionist or quirks that arise from one's religious beliefs. Then you may as well be a serial killer as far as some people are concerned.

I wouldn't say that's the case. There are plenty of religion-based Esperanto groups. Maybe they don't hang out online, but at the Movement Fair of the Universala Kongreso, the Atheism society was sharing a table with a couple of Christian societies and everyone got along just fine.

As a member of a conservative religion myself, I've never had a problem, and I've found Esperanto speakers very helpful and accommodating of my dietary restrictions and sabbath-related restrictions on activities.

oh, but use language a bit out of the norm because of religious reasons and you get your tukhus handed to you by the cabal not to mention mocked and treated as a pariah (or else threatened with such),

Benjamino:I'm pretty OK with it, Rargos. Both you and I live in a country where everyone is entitled to express their opinion, no matter how inaccurate or misguided it is

Actually you're not - try standing up in the middle of a meeting at work and saying that you think that homosexuals are deviants or that hispanics are lazy and see how long you keep your job. (Ironically, you could probably say Christians are intolerant bigots and get away with it ...).

I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with homosexuals, hispanics, jews, etc. -- I think there is far too much intolerance in the world. But it's amazing to see how the formerly "oppressed" groups in society have now become the oppressors ....and Esperantujo (at least here at Lernu) is no different.

jismith1989:If a large number of religious people feel the same way, maybe you should petition Lernu to create a Religio forum where religious people can chat about issues that affect them and various other matters of spirituality that non-religious people don't seem able to understand.

As another (now departed) user pointed out, the problem is not religious people prothelytizing to or criticizing non-believers, the problem is the so-called "strong atheists" whose belief system is centered around attacking religion and believers. There are LOTS and LOTS of examples of this on Lernu.

jismith1989:Then again, if you're going to be just as insulting about Judaism, maybe there's no point! When it comes to debates, having the right to say that you think certain beliefs are wrong seems okay to me though

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Judaism and Jews and sincerely believe that they are "God's chosen people" (so to speak) -- I was just trying to make a point about the double (or multiple) standards when it comes to who is allowed to criticize whom.

I also feel very strongly that we should be debating BEHAVIORS and not BELIEFS. This is why hate crime laws are flawed, in my opinion. I think it's fine to say "religious people shouldn't try to force prayers in schools" but saying "religious people are stupid" isn't constructive.