Religion Gets Fucked By Facebook

Recently there has been some religious controversy on the social networking website facebook. Somebody going by the name of “Variable Variable” created two facebook groups called “Fuck Christianity” and “Fuck Islam” (and also a third group called “Fuck All Religion”). Obviously such titles are bound to cause a fuss, and they did. There are now over 20 groups dedicated to opposing “Fuck Islam” representing at least 70,000 people. Pretty dramatic response considering there are probably only about 100 people in the “Fuck Islam” group who aren’t members so that they can post death threats to the members.

The “Fuck Christianity” group has just over 100 members, and the group demanding that that group be shut down has over 24,000. Apparantly Christians don’t quite care as much as Muslims, despite being more significantly represented in facebook. Islam is a religion that is attacked a great deal; probably disproportionally given that it’s not really any worse than any other religion, so it’s not really that suprising that they feel defensive.

Of course people who belong to the same religion are still different people, and these groups make that quite clear. Somebody will join one of the groups and post a long message about how their chosen religion is a peaceful and tolerant religion, and the members of the group should extend the same tolerance. This will be followed by another person of that same religion who will post about how he is going to kill the creator and his whole family because of the name of the group.

Of course the thing about facebook groups, is that you only see them if your friends join them, or if you actively look for the group. A search for Islam brings up “Fuck Islam” after over 300 other groups. In no way are these groups expressing themselves to people of the religion they’re attacking because people of those religions won’t see them unless they’re friends join them or they start looking for groups attacking their religion. So these people complaining about being offended had to actively look for the offensive material before they could be offended.

Shockingly nobody has complained about the various “Fuck Atheism” groups, presumably because atheists don’t care.

It’s a bit of an issue of free speach as well. Here is a group, that like all facebook groups is not pushing itself onto anybody, expressing an opinion about religion. It’s an opinion many people agree with and although the language is strong, religion kills millions of people, so perhaps strong language best expresses how rational people feel about going to war because of imaginary friends. Religious people are free to express their beliefs in whatever way they feel, and it doesn’t take much searching to find groups claiming that atheists are immoral and should be executed. Why does nobody try to have those opinions censored yet they try to have anti-religious opinions censored?

Why is religion such a taboo from criticism?

If religious people want to attack my beliefs, I say bring it on! Why can’t I express my own religious beliefs? I’m not going into people’s churches, I’m not standing on the street, or knocking on doors; I’m putting my beliefs in a place where people can only see them if they want to see them. If they don’t want to see them, they’re under no obligation to look for them and under no obligation to read them.

They choose to read my opinions and then claim that they should be censored.

One person described belonging to a group that only people who wanted to read could see as “moronic” and “close minded.” He refused to explain why that was, but if you’re going to criticise religion you can expect personal attacks, perhaps because religious people lack the skills to debate on the actual issue.

Unlike this person, I don’t support needlessly insulting people, but if people want to look for insults, I don’t know who else you can blame when they find those insults.

I’ve got a lot out of those “fuck groups,” I’ve had a number of great discussions with Muslims about their beliefs and my right to express my own beliefs. Because I don’t go out of my way to read other people’s beliefs, those debates would never have occured; and despite our religous differences, I’m now friends with one of those Muslims.

Discussion of issues, especially important issues is good. If people have good social skills those discussions can be civil and positive, even if you completely disagree.

I don’t hate religious people, I hate religion, and I believe I have as much right to express that belief as a religous person has to express their beliefs. If you don’t agree, I’d love to discuss that with you.