To raise this topic makes the characterization that all Christians are antivaxxers. This simply isn’t true. The real problem here is a perpetuation of anomosity between people that make these kinds stereotypes. Being vaccinated for a disease is not a political, religious or social issue. It is a medical issue.
If we only could keep it a medical issue. But loud anti-vaccination mouthbreathers and knuckle draggers make it a political/religious/social issue instead of the medical issue it is and should be.
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That’s true, but that of course this is missed by the very people who oppose vaccination, who may or may not be religious, but who are sadly either not capable of, or willing to think critically, and thus accept objective evidence and rational argument as the best way to validate what they will or will not believe.
People is dumb, but also very very stubborn.
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Perhaps it wasn’t in the past, but currently for many places in the US: I’m guessing the best single variable for predicting vaccination status (other than age) is major political party membership.
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Name calling never helps either.
It is a negative action. But we are referring to people who are ignoring the science and evidence and they are the ones prolonging this pandemic that has caused so much suffering and death. They do not deserve respect or even polite treatment because they are selfish assholes who are directly responsible for thousands who are suffering horrible deaths.
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Being anti-vaccination is being anti-science and anti-health. If the anti-vaccers want a real debate, then they should debate the real science and issues in a civil manner. Instead, they invent lies and spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt, and live to spread lies. They are a danger to society and to people’s health, and they are directly and indirectly responsible for a lot of death and suffering. They have had lots of chances to bring in actual arguments, evidence, and real issues, but they don’t. They keep on going with their freshly defecated bovine feces. Thus these intellectually dishonest persons deserve absolutely no respect.
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Currently I am engaged with an asshole in a private sim racing Discord server. He spreads hate and anti-mask and anti-vaccine lies. Oh yea, a conspiracy by the governnent. All I have been doing for the last two days is stating that I am open to his argument, but I need evidence or proof to support his assertions.
Of course, he is firing blanks. It is pathetic and amusing when all you ask is any kind of proof and they have absolutely nothing.
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Newsflash: Water is wet, and bears defecate in the woods. You read it first here.
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Yea, he ran out of bullshit and anger, and started resorting to personal attacks. I expected that to happen.
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Why does that happen with Theists when they can’t present evidence of their claims?
I got into it with one on a forum several months ago. He couldn’t back up his claims and wanted me to prove that his god wasn’t real, but I told him that is his responsibility because he was the one making claims and thus was accountable via burden of proof.
The owner banned him because he was acting crazy and spouting off nonsense about his supernatural beliefs and being vulgar. Then he started trolling me with name calling. It went from a religious debate to him being a complete asshole.
Then when he failed to convince the owner of the forum that his deity was real, started attacking him too. So the silly Christian idiot got banned.
They really just need to stay on a Christian forum. They don’t mix well with other people.
The other day, I was having to explain(what they should have learned in high school science classes) why Natural immunity is just not enough sometimes. I kept trying to hammer in the point that sometimes your immune system needs a boost from a vaccine, but they just kept trying to say that natural immunity is better(implying that intentional exposure is a good idea???) which I seem to remember learning is a bad idea in my college microbiology class. It’s kind of akin to not finishing your round of antibiotics after contracting strep.
I can sort of understand people distrusting certain facets of the scientific community because of some of the unfortunate history between scientists, doctors, vaccines, etc, but these days we hold people in that particular industry to a certain higher standard of accountability. They are obligated to be ethical, to disclose and to be 100% transparent with the ingredients within the vaccine. That information is readily available on the CDC’s website.
I feel like with disclosure should at least be met with some modicum of trust. Unfortunately, people would much rather invest in Cherokee hair tampons(see the South Park episode of the same name).
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“Natural immunity” for such a deadly virus requires that a substantial portion of the population must suffer and die.
A vaccine is basically a mini-disease, small enough to trigger the body’s immune response to combat the disease.
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If it happens again tell him he is using an argumentum ad ignorantiam fallacy. In logic nothing can be asserted as true or untrue because of a lack of evidence. FYI atheism is defined as a lack or absence of belief, it is not a belief, nor is it a claim.
That one is called an ad hominem fallacy. He sounds delightful.
I have always found it ironic that people claim to know an esoteric and absolute truth, that means they are among a very few who will be saved from an eternity of torture, and instead enjoy an eternity of bliss… then get all bent out of shape because other humans find their belief dubious.
Methinks the theist doth protest too much, to paraphrase Shakespeare.
Not a Bard quote.
I’ll get me coat…
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I respectfully disagree. I know many theists who are very sane and reasonable.
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A lot of theists can be sane and reasonable, it’s when their beliefs cause them to be extreme that I start to personally take issue with them. For example, there’s a difference between some of them believing in creationism(which I agree with Aron Ra that it’s a form of religious extremism) or say, refusing medical care because they’re faith healers or something.
One is clearly worse than the other. Religious beliefs or behaviors that negatively and/or quantifiably impact the health or well-being of other human beings should never be tolerated, and that’s where I draw the line when it comes to religious beliefs.
I just saw a video on CNN that really hurt my heart. This woman who needs a Kidney Transplant is being turned down because she(and her donor) refuse to get the Covid Vaccine on(Get this…) RELIGIOUS GROUNDS.
God fucking dammit, get your head out of your ass, get the fucking vaccine so your life can be saved!!! I HATE hearing about cases like these because I’m dealing with two highly conflicting emotions here, my compassion for a terminal patient and my anger at their blatant ignorance that’s likely to end their existence.
Say what you want about the Jehovah’s Witnesses, those people have SERIOUS problems, but at least they’re not stupid enough to refuse the vaccine. Although I admit, at one time, their literature from sometime back in the 1920’s or 1930’s told them they should refuse vaccines. Funny how they’re reasonable in some respects… but very unreasonable in many other respects.
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@Russoguru Yea, I fully agree. It is very tragic when one’s religious beliefs can get in the way of staying alive, at a very small cost. It is even more tragic when such beliefs also involve children.
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Definitely. One of the things Jehovah’s Witnesses are known for more than anything is their stance on blood transfusions. For a LONG time, their leadership and literature said their adherents could take no blood transfusions(They even have no blood cards they carry around in their wallets that are legal documents stating they are to receive no blood transfusions).
Back in the 80’s, one of their AWAKE! magazines had a cover with “youths putting God first” or some such nonsense who all died from refusing blood transfusions… and yet in the late 80’s or early 90’s, all of a sudden it became a matter of conscience as to whether or not to accept “blood fractions”.
It was still a thing in the late nineties. It was left to your conscience BUT if you were loyal to Jehovah and “got” the unspoken message (received loud and clear) - you were to refuse the fractions.
I did.
Thankfully I had an incredibly skilled surgeon.
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If I was in charge it would have been much worse. I’d have kicked everyone off the rolls (to receive a transplant) the day after they were eligible for a vaccine and didn’t get one. Because those extra organs are scarce and should only go to people who are serious about taking care of them.
I’d go so far as to suggest that perhaps the run of the mill theists (at least the ones who believe they are immortal/have a soul/live forever) has no need for replacement organs and should be removed.
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