When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Or at least, keep quiet about your opinions on their stupid customs. Is there really a point to visiting the blogs of those who disagree with you and telling them they’re wrong?
Via Friendly Atheist I found this post on an astrology blog. It’s an astrological analysis of an author who committed suicide. I must admit I haven’t heard of him before and hence I’m not particularly affected by his death. The astrology post conjures up no feelings in me beyond the usual vague disdain for nonsense.
There are a couple of critical comments on the blog though. One guy says:
Perhaps your head is up Uranus, If you think that the stars had anything to do with this sad situation. I prefer the condolences thanks, not some arcane w@nkery that makes you feel better about yourself.
He probably feels a bit more strongly about this author’s death than I do, which is fair enough really. But one of the astrology-fans replied with this:
I find it highly amusing that people who don’t ‘believe’ in astrology came by to read this post after a couple critics “dissed” it. Isn’t that like looking at pictures of a naked woman and then being offended that she is naked?
And that, I find to be an insightful comment.
See, I don’t think enroaching on other people’s territory and telling them they’re wrong is a good idea. Unless they’re directly harming people, I think it’s respectless to bring our protests not just to their doorstep but into their homes. When I’m in a church, I don’t start arguing with the priest about god’s existence - I’m on his territory (or hers, as the case may be). I think that when I’m invited somewhere, it sort of goes without saying that I should apply at least a little bit of “when in Rome”-thinking. And of course the reverse applies as well. Let’s say a religious person is invited to a debate with atheists. It would be respectless of that person to start trying to practise laying-of-hands on the disbelievers, or even trying to bless the audience.
This obviously doesn’t mean I immediately respect people’s opinions the moment I in some way find myself on their home turf. Nor do I expect them to respect mine. But going to an astrology blog, or a religious forum, or whatever, and starting to argue with them… it rings of “if I don’t like this one particular thing, no one else should be allowed to like it either”. It’s like wanting to forbid sex and violence on TV because you’re too lazy to change the channel. Not exactly like that, but a bit.
In short I really don’t see the point in going to astrology-nut territory and saying astrology is nutty. No one there’s going to agree, and a fair few are going to be offended, and you have accomplished nothing but making yourself look like a spoil-sport. When a person of faith comes over to an atheist blog and starts going on about being offended, a very common response is: “This is an atheist blog! No one forced you to read it. Go somewhere else if you don’t want to be offended.”
And the same really should go for us. I for one very rarely read religious, superstitious or pseudoscientific blogs. They’re not written for me and I know I’ll just end up annoyed or even offended. So why would I expose myself to it?
Now of course, when religious, superstitious or pseudoscientific nonsense is peddled to the general public through for instance mainstream media, we should be there, screaming at the top of our lungs arguing reasonably in a calm voice. But if we truly believe in every person’s right to believe whatever the hell they want to believe, why don’t we just - as a general rule - simply leave them to it, as long as they’re doing it in their own homes, churches or blogs?
superstition, astrology, religion, respect
