You may find the evidence in this book useful. It's not his best work (he's better at academic writing at least for me) but it's worth looking at his statistics.
Also, your writing is so interesting because it brings out the one problem I always have being a historian of religion and immigration at my museum. NO, one should not generalize about any group, but what happens when we have overwhelming evidence of racism, xenophobia, etc. in a religious or cultural group? How do we address it? I can't tell you of the amount of [triangulable] research in my field that reveals just how many Jews think Islam is inferior, or Muslims who hold shockingly anti-semitic views of Jews, for example. I also have evidence in surveys taken of hundreds of thousands of Christians who use their religion to justify things such as homophobia, rape, and anti-semitism. These studies are ALL done in countries classified as "Western." In other words, economically stable, high literacy and education rates, etc.
These studies also show that an education has little influence on changing these views. In fact, the more educated a person is, the more likely they are to stick to that view!
What do we do then? I have absolutely no problem calling out people in their a historical ideas or incorrect knowledge about a religion on Facebook or otherwise. (I used to do it for a living outside of Planned Parenthood.) It doesn't make me any friends, which is fine, but that's not how relationships can be built. HOW DO YOU FIND THE BALANCE between calling out your friends (which is, incidentally, proven scientifically to work in changing people's opinions on religion more successfully than articles or books, and about equally as successfully as movies) and not being a jerk?
If research (like vaccine research) is telling us bigotry and racism is rampant in religious groups, and is also telling us calling out our friends in those groups spreading such hatred is the best way to combat that, then what are we to do?
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chiming
For Amy's Thoughtfulness
Date: 2015-02-12 05:07 am (UTC)From: (Anonymous)You may find the evidence in this book useful. It's not his best work (he's better at academic writing at least for me) but it's worth looking at his statistics.
Also, your writing is so interesting because it brings out the one problem I always have being a historian of religion and immigration at my museum. NO, one should not generalize about any group, but what happens when we have overwhelming evidence of racism, xenophobia, etc. in a religious or cultural group? How do we address it? I can't tell you of the amount of [triangulable] research in my field that reveals just how many Jews think Islam is inferior, or Muslims who hold shockingly anti-semitic views of Jews, for example. I also have evidence in surveys taken of hundreds of thousands of Christians who use their religion to justify things such as homophobia, rape, and anti-semitism. These studies are ALL done in countries classified as "Western." In other words, economically stable, high literacy and education rates, etc.
These studies also show that an education has little influence on changing these views. In fact, the more educated a person is, the more likely they are to stick to that view!
What do we do then? I have absolutely no problem calling out people in their a historical ideas or incorrect knowledge about a religion on Facebook or otherwise. (I used to do it for a living outside of Planned Parenthood.) It doesn't make me any friends, which is fine, but that's not how relationships can be built. HOW DO YOU FIND THE BALANCE between calling out your friends (which is, incidentally, proven scientifically to work in changing people's opinions on religion more successfully than articles or books, and about equally as successfully as movies) and not being a jerk?
If research (like vaccine research) is telling us bigotry and racism is rampant in religious groups, and is also telling us calling out our friends in those groups spreading such hatred is the best way to combat that, then what are we to do?
Thanks for your thoughtfulness. :)