A Lot of People to Hate

Quite frequently you will see Facebook entries which are some picture accompanied by a pithy statement, usually derogatory towards some group or person. Sometimes the picture is a personality like Gene Wilder or Patrick Stewart in an exasperated expression. Sometimes it’s just a phrase in sound bite form. Usually these Facebook bumper stickers are non-sequiturs. I saw one the other day which was a condemnation of religion. I suppose this was a Jack Chick style irreligious tract. I was just going to pass by it with my usual, why do I bother? shrug, but I started thinking (a bad sign.) This one said that the dark ages were caused by the ascension of Christianity. This was just monumental in its ignorance. In one sound bite it managed to insult three groups: Christians, historians, and scientists. Truly impressive.

The dark ages weren’t quite as dark as the popular Peoplepedia would have us believe. There was the Holy (sic) Roman (sic) Empire (sic.) (Sic’s courtesy of Mark Twain, who said it was none of the above.) Charlemagne instituted some very important reforms during that time, such as crop rotation and the miniscule font, saving money on expensive parchment. Yes, he was interested in preserving and obtaining knowledge.

The remaining bastions of learning in the west were in places like Paris, Venice, and Edinburg and were founded as religious orders and maintained by the Church. And the eastern, Byzantine empire flourished for another thousand years under the Eastern Orthodox Church. Much of the ‘lost’ knowledge of Greece and Rome just migrated into the Middle East and was taken up by Muslim, Christian, and Jewish scholars. Eventually some of it found its way into Moorish Spain. After the Moors were driven out of Spain by El Cid and his mob, Spanish Jews were granted asylum by the Muslim caliph in Baghdad. So much for the misconception that ‘those people have always been fighting.’ Christian scholars flooded into Spain to raid the libraries, bringing the wonders of Aristotle and the rest into the depressed west. Catholicism, after all, had been richly inspired by Plato, a pagan, and sorely needed the upgrade.

It was another Christian, Saint Thomas Aquinas, who integrated Aristotelian philosophy into Catholicism, paving the way for our scientific forefathers like Roger Bacon and the Renaissance they pioneered. And this is a very small list, but still bigger than a bumper sticker. Just saying ‘Christians do/did this terrible thing’ is rather bigoted, wouldn’t you say?

So, still thinking, I realized that there are names for people who hate certain groups indiscriminately. Some are:

Misogynist – Women.

Misandronist – Men.

Sexist – Either sex for the other, ironically making the term itself very inclusive.

Anti-Semite – Jews. Also anyone criticizing the secular state of Israel. (Unless you’re Jewish. Then you are a self-hating Jew.)

Russophobic – Russians.

Homophobic – Gays.

Islamophobic – Muslims.

Trumpophobic – Trump supporters.

Paganphobia – Country dwellers.

Polisphobia – City dwellers.

I’m sure I’ve left numerous groups out and will be called a derogatory name for it.

So what about all religious people in general? Would that be Religiophobic? That’s a lot of people to hate.