Prejudiced, narrow-minded, and bigoted.

"A prejudiced, narrow minded, bigoted religion that insists it is the ONLY truth, but, you know, regrets the necessity, is still a prejudiced, narrow minded, bigoted religion, and that's exactly what I dislike about modern day conservatism, too." --Highlander, referring to Christianity in general.


Christianity is prejudiced: (most apropos definitions pasted below)
–noun
1. an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.
3. unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, esp. of a hostile nature, regarding a racial, religious, or national group.

Prejudiced, might I ask, against what? Definition one is inapplicable. Knowledge, thought and reason are part and parcel of the disapproval God passed down upon sin of any kind. He has ultimate knowledge, being the Creator of this universe. Or, is it definition three that you are applying here? You don't like the unfavorable opinions that God has of certain things, so you label these opinions as prejudiced. IE, 'prejudiced' is the word you use to describe God's unfavorable opinions, because you find them unfavorable. And you know, honestly, you can't even fall on definition three, since a Christian isn't supposed to be hostile to anyone. "Love the sinner, hate the sin."

Furthermore, to be 'prejudiced', such opinions or feelings must not only be unfavorable or hostile, they must also be unreasonable. Having an unfavorable opinion of some action because your religion or belief system regards it as bad is not unreasonable. Of course, a religion or belief system that regards members of a race or nation as bad for no other reason than their membership in such groups is unreasonable, that's racism or nationalism. For religions to regard each other unfavorably is not and cannot be construed as prejudice. Differing beliefs that conflict with each other pretty much have to contest each other.

Now it's pretty clear that the 'Christians' you are talking about are hate-fed, hate-fuelled, hate-filled, prejudiced, narrow-minded, bigoted people holding signs outside gay bars that read: 'God Hates Fags', and go around 'defending life' by bombing abortion clinics. Why is it that everyone but atheists can see the scare-quotes around 'Christians' as it applies to these people?


Christianity is narrow-minded:
–adjective
2. not receptive to new ideas; having a closed mind.
3. extremely conservative and morally self-righteous.

Well, here you sort of have a case. Christians should be understandably wary of anything that conflicts with the rules God has passed down, and that would make outsiders view them as closed-minded. But there is a difference between a closed mind that rejects things without consideration, and a mind that considers them first, and rejects them based on whether or not they conflict with one's conscience. If Christians were not receptive to new ideas, the Bible would still being laboriously copied by hand by monks slowly going blind in monasteries lit by torches. Right now, the Bible is being rattled off in over 60 languages by the most advanced multi-lingual printing press in the world, located in Brooklyn, at the Watchtower Bible andTract Society. It's such a new idea it's patented.

"Extremely conservative" is only a negative connotation if you happen to be a liberal, and is a matter of taste more than anything else. The lexicographer is showing his bias here. Talk about irony. Now, 'morally self-righteous', that does describe a lot of people professing to be Christian. But look at them. Pedophile priests, womanizing televangelists, holier-than-thou bigots, do you think any of these people represent Jesus Christ? And the people that follow them, well, monkey see monkey do, eh?


Christianity is bigoted:
adjective
utterly intolerant of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own.

Ok. That seems like a fair cop. But given that creeds, beliefs, and opinions that vary with Jehovah's are roads to destruction (and many of them believe likewise of each other and of Christianity), you can hardly expect me to believe that in this context, 'bigoted' is at all negative. In this context, 'bigotry' is a virtue. And also... 'one's own'? As in, something some guy just decided to believe? Please. This is the singular form of belief, to which a negative word like bigotry can actually be applied.

A religion is larger than those who practice it. Bigotry is a human attribute. Belief systems are neccessarily exclusive. If you believe A, and A not B, then you cannot also believe B. 'Bigoted' cannot be applied to any religion, only to those who follow it, and only if their intolerance is based on something other than their beliefs. If all members of a religion believe 'A', and 'A' precludes 'B', you cannot call them bigoted for refusing to believe 'B'. If you can prove 'B' to be true, then feel free to beat them over the head with that.


Understand that a religion is not one man that follows it, nor is any man that follows it that religion itself. Prejudiced, Narrow-minded, and Bigoted are terms that cannot be applied to belief systems, only to individuals. You may not like a particular belief system. You may not like the people who follow it. You will encounter many belief systems that conflict with your own (and you do have one). But if you decide that all the people who follow (or profess to follow) a particular reasonable (sic) belief system are bad because they follow (or profess to follow) that belief system, see the above definitions.

Mind you, modern-day conservatism sucks.