Once again, Still, the quote below is what I referred to as bias and prejudice.
Comments labelling people of faith/religion being ignorant, superstitious, arrogant, afraid, deluded, etc... that they should not hold certain positions in science or law... this is what I am speaking of, and I have seen this.
And yes, your comments are off regarding Islam. Of course what you state does happen... but it does not happen with all sects of Islam. So you cannot umbrella it. Certainly you can hate the belief/practice/whatever... and not hate the person. So it is not hard for a person of faith, Cofty, to understand that. Not even remotely hard to understand. But again, my point is that some have and build prejudice against all people of faith, regardless of what their faith compels them to do, simply on the basis of the fact that they have faith to begin with.
I have yet to see it. And I didn't say they 'bowed to a leader', those are YOUR words. I said, they always refer to someone who claims to have authority of some sort. Authority being....Special insight, knowledge, connection to the spirit realm or messages or understanding of their god and what he wants.
It is just an expression. I know people whose authority is Christ and God, and no one else, who share their faith with one another, but are not led by one another... and then there are also some who simply keep their faith quietly to themselves. So I will have to disagree with you on this, based on my knowledge and experience.
Not saying it does not ever happen. Of course it does. But there are many with whom it does not happen as well. If I can see that things are not the same with all theists, or all atheists, why can't you?
There are also plenty of people who do not lump all atheists in one group, or all theists in one group. They take a person for their individuality. Because making a blanket judgment of a person solely upon the basis of them having faith or not is prejudice, and does lead to discrimination.
Peace,
tammy