Discrimination Based on Belief
Many people today seem to be concerned about discrimination based on religion. Some how religion has become a protected class and I have to wonder why that is. Personally, I don’t support discrimination based on religion because that makes it seem like someone is being discriminated against based on some natural quality of that person.
I discriminate against people based on their beliefs. I don’t care if those beliefs are religious beliefs, political beliefs, mythological beliefs, grand conspiracy related beliefs, etc. Beliefs can change. People aren’t born with beliefs. If someone applied for a job at a bookstore and told the interviewer that he or she believes in burning books, I think the bookstore should discriminate against that person and not hire him or her.
Discriminating against someone based on some aspect that they cannot alter more times than not is immoral. Mainly, the reason for that is because they can’t alter that trait. This is why discriminating against someone’s gender, ethnic background, skin color, or sexual orientation is generally considered wrong. But religious beliefs are not based on gender or ethnic background or skin color or sexual orientation. So why is religious belief a protected class?
People are generally brainwashed from birth into religion. Which religion is largely depends on someone’s ethnic background. Since ethnic background is a protected class, the assumption is that religion should be a protected class. The thing is that today, more and more people are breaking free from their religions while still holding to their individual ethnic backgrounds. Since ethnic backgrounds are rightfully a protected class, there is no valid reason why religious beliefs or any beliefs for that matter should be a protected class.
People are entitled to believe whatever they want in this country, but they are not entitled to act on those beliefs nor are there beliefs entitled to protection from the consequences of those beliefs. Someone is free to believe that black people should still be slaves, but if they act on that belief, they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Also, if they voice that belief in certain settings, they should be discriminated against based on that belief.
I would never support discriminating against Christians, but I do support discriminating against Christian belief. I’m sorry, but if someone is going to believe in the infallibility of an obviously flawed ancient text and that there is some all-powerful dictator who raped a young lady in a way so that she could still remain a virgin in order to give birth to himself so he could kill himself to some how redeem the wrongdoings of everyone who believes this crazy tale, than I am going to discriminate against you because that is ridiculous.
But not all Christians today hold this belief as fundamental to their lives. Many Christians can still live mostly secular lives and then go to Church on Sunday and believe. If I owned a retail business, I would have no problem hiring such a person. But if someone told me in an interview that they believe all unsaved people are going to be tortured for all eternity and since he or she was a loving person, he or she would attempt to save every customer who walked in the door, I would and should discriminate against them and give the job to someone else. That’s not bigoted, that’s just common sense.
Filed under: Religion
