Thanos Thanos:
Religion itself isn't the problem, but any of the damned fundamentalism that springs from it certainly is.
Really? Fundamentalism merely means that you strictly adhere to your beliefs.
A fundamentalist liberal or a fundamental secularist probably would be okay with you.
A fundamentalist Ba'hai would be a pretty nice person, I'd imagine.
Fundamentalist Christians are sometimes great people depending on how they roll with that. A guy I know from high school is a member of The Way (sort of culty to me) and he's a pacifist, politically neutral on a host of social issues, he's got ten kids now, and etc. and I don't think I've ever heard him utter a controversial opinion. Meaning I'm almost certain if you met him you'd find him rather unremarkable. But he's still a very strict believer in what he believes.
An acquaintance of mine went off at age 18 and married into a fundamentalist Christian group that practices polygamy and they're pretty strict about a host of things yet they're not out into anyone else's business because they also take it to heart about not judging anyone else if there's a fault in their own heart.
The fundamentalist Muslims you'll note I don't *argue* with because they are standing up to what they believe in. I've honestly very little problem with them doing their thing so long as they don't want me to do it, too.
I'd further be okay with these people like in Saudi Arabia or Iran if they would allow religious offenders to be banished from their countries as opposed to putting them to death.
In short, I have some respect for fundamentalists of all stripes so long as they actually live the life they're promoting. Hypocrites, like the pedarasts in Afghanistan who say that as long as it's "only" sex with a little boy and not a man then it's not homosexuality (I'm not exaggerating) make me sick. Hypocrites like in the Catholic Church who denounce homosexuality while priests are molesting little boys all over the place make me sick. Hypocrites like the Westboro church who vomit their bile over everyone while having no redeeming aspects whatsoever make me angry. And etc.
Orthodox Jews, for the most part, I've always found to be decent, hardworking and trustworthy people and this idiotic decision to stone a dog to death utterly stymies me.