This is my experience, it is subjective

2008-11-13 · Original WordPress address

Regarding intolerant religious people, Richard Heck writes:

Are we entirely sure that religious people do tend to be kinder and more compassionate than secular people? And are we sure of this, especially, when we do not set aside the notable exceptions [WA: e.g. homosexuals]?

I know its The Correct Thing To Say that religious people are intolerant and they are especially towards certain groups. This is the objective social fact of the matter and of course there's the conclusive proof set out by that bumper sticker: hate isn't a family value. Having grown up in a place where the people are moderately religious ((Five churches in a town of 1400 people.)) and then living most of my adult life amongst secular liberal types, my experience, though, is that the latter are relatively more intolerant especially when it comes to the former. At Berkeley, I was washed clean of all my conservative values which in retrospect weren't any worse than those liberal values that replaced them. Just different. I wonder if there's any data on this? I prefer the "revealed preference" kind, though. Secular liberal types tend to put a premium on calling themselves tolerant thus biasing survey answers.