[Cheese]

Originally Posted by Yamer

This definitely isn't the forum for it all, but I think a lot of people would benefit from looking at, say, Christianity as a whole. Focusing just on scripture discounts a full appreciation for even the self discovery that a lot of scholars undertook throughout the past 2000 years to reconcile scripture and theology with modernity.

It's absolutely fascinating to read and witness how theology evolved through religious and secular philosophy and study. It's a grand undertaking, but I think it would give non-theists a broader acceptance and understanding of religion.

As a self-described apostate of Catholicism who began as an aggressive atheist it really helped me understand my anger with the Church, soften my approach with tolerance, and gain a greater understanding of how multitudes of religious thought brought about the world we live in today.

I only took a few interdisciplinary religious courses in University and dabbled a bit with it in my free time. It's actually kind of reassuring to see someone like Textcritic, who has dedicated most of their life to this discipline, still within utter internal and external reflection on the topic. In fact, I was shocked to discover that one of the most critical and unbiased instructors I had on the topic was a devout Christian. Either way I'm thankful to him and all the people that encouraged me to examine my discourse and embrace inclusive conversations.

Perhaps it demonstrates we can't be so rigid in our beliefs and assertions, no matter how foundational they are to our selves. I'm comfortable with what I believe, but not so much as to not listen and learn from others.

Just a thought I'll toss out here, I wonder if there is a course that theists could take that would help them better understand how atheism evolved through religious and secular philosophy and better tolerate atheists, LGBTQs & other religions outside of their own world view?

The reason we have "active atheism" now is because Christians are so rigid in their beliefs and assertions. (note; used Christians here but you can slot any religious belief system into the topic).

Generally speaking it takes 2 to tango, and considering the religious viewpoint has held strong for over 2 millenia it is absolutely no wonder there is such a desire by a great number of people to push back against that with more than "reflection".