To start, I apologize for the language in my previous comment. It was a bit petulant, and quite pedantic. There's also a TLDR at the end, because WOW there's a lot more to say about this than I first thought.
Regarding the condemnation of an entire belief system though: how much do you know about Islam? Have you read any of the Quran? Do you know about the 5 pillars? Have you spent much time interacting with Muslims? Condemning something in its entirety just because you were taught to hate the name just fuels more hatred and conflict, and leads to a lot of people being hurt and killed who really didn't have to be, and a lot of opportunities for wonderful things being lost.
I'm no authority on Islam by any stretch of the imagination, but I can tell you that it's basically impossible to get a group of people (group here defined as 2+ individuals) to agree 100% on all aspects of ANYTHING. Especially for something as deeply personal as religion. Islam is a religion which encompasses over 1 billion people, do you assume they all practice their religion identically, following the holy book to the letter? Christianity never held that kind of universal power, even when there were less than a billion people on the planet. Hell, at one point there were 3 people claiming to be the one true pope, there's been a split between Western and Eastern Christianity for almost 1000 years, and the Borgias got up to all kinds of stuff (which is seriously worth a read. There's a reason the have their own TV show now)
There were 8 (ish) crusades, ostensibly to defend christianity from islam. Only one of them achieved any success, and the last major one never even got to the Holy land. They just sacked Constantinople, a christian city, and went home. People in America argued it was God's will that black people be segregated from the whites, people argue it’s God’s will that they go to war, and pretty much every politician nowadays invokes God to argue that they are right. People have always perverted the teachings of religions to their own ends. Some people always will. The key word here, though, is Some.
Most people are good, well meaning people. If you haven't met very many nice people, then I apologize on behalf of humanity, because you've had the incredibly unfortunate experience of running into a lot of the minority we call 'bad people'. Most of us just want food, water, shelter, and something meaningful to do with our time (After the first 3 needs are met). The muslims I've met founded the local branch of the Food Recovery Network. I've never been to a volunteer event near where I live that didn't include at least one Indian and one Chinese immigrant. Even the Russians I've met pride themselves on their hospitality, they just keep a close eye on you until you prove you're not a bandit of some kind. Coincidentally, of my friends who were raped/otherwise sexually assaulted, the perpetrators all identified as some kind of christian, or agnostic (which makes sense, because christianity is by far the most prolific belief system in the US. It's about as surprising as saying most criminals in Japan are Japanese: 95%+ of the population).
My point? Stereotyping doesn’t help anyone, as it’s incorrect more often than not, and the world isn’t nearly as dark as you seem to think. It just seems that way from listening to the news because nobody would watch if the stories were all about how everything is getting better, which is bad business.
TLDR: that snake is almost certainly not poisonous, and, with the exception of those friggin huge snakes that don’t bite, but crush their prey then swallow it (which are pretty small portion of all snakes), it won’t bother you if it isn’t literally starving. And even the huge ones are just looking for a meal at the end of the day.
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@v0ider
To start, I apologize for the language in my previous comment. It was a bit petulant, and quite pedantic. There's also a TLDR at the end, because WOW there's a lot more to say about this than I first thought.
Regarding the condemnation of an entire belief system though: how much do you know about Islam? Have you read any of the Quran? Do you know about the 5 pillars? Have you spent much time interacting with Muslims? Condemning something in its entirety just because you were taught to hate the name just fuels more hatred and conflict, and leads to a lot of people being hurt and killed who really didn't have to be, and a lot of opportunities for wonderful things being lost.
I'm no authority on Islam by any stretch of the imagination, but I can tell you that it's basically impossible to get a group of people (group here defined as 2+ individuals) to agree 100% on all aspects of ANYTHING. Especially for something as deeply personal as religion. Islam is a religion which encompasses over 1 billion people, do you assume they all practice their religion identically, following the holy book to the letter? Christianity never held that kind of universal power, even when there were less than a billion people on the planet. Hell, at one point there were 3 people claiming to be the one true pope, there's been a split between Western and Eastern Christianity for almost 1000 years, and the Borgias got up to all kinds of stuff (which is seriously worth a read. There's a reason the have their own TV show now)
There were 8 (ish) crusades, ostensibly to defend christianity from islam. Only one of them achieved any success, and the last major one never even got to the Holy land. They just sacked Constantinople, a christian city, and went home. People in America argued it was God's will that black people be segregated from the whites, people argue it’s God’s will that they go to war, and pretty much every politician nowadays invokes God to argue that they are right. People have always perverted the teachings of religions to their own ends. Some people always will. The key word here, though, is Some.
Most people are good, well meaning people. If you haven't met very many nice people, then I apologize on behalf of humanity, because you've had the incredibly unfortunate experience of running into a lot of the minority we call 'bad people'. Most of us just want food, water, shelter, and something meaningful to do with our time (After the first 3 needs are met). The muslims I've met founded the local branch of the Food Recovery Network. I've never been to a volunteer event near where I live that didn't include at least one Indian and one Chinese immigrant. Even the Russians I've met pride themselves on their hospitality, they just keep a close eye on you until you prove you're not a bandit of some kind. Coincidentally, of my friends who were raped/otherwise sexually assaulted, the perpetrators all identified as some kind of christian, or agnostic (which makes sense, because christianity is by far the most prolific belief system in the US. It's about as surprising as saying most criminals in Japan are Japanese: 95%+ of the population).
My point? Stereotyping doesn’t help anyone, as it’s incorrect more often than not, and the world isn’t nearly as dark as you seem to think. It just seems that way from listening to the news because nobody would watch if the stories were all about how everything is getting better, which is bad business.
TLDR: that snake is almost certainly not poisonous, and, with the exception of those friggin huge snakes that don’t bite, but crush their prey then swallow it (which are pretty small portion of all snakes), it won’t bother you if it isn’t literally starving. And even the huge ones are just looking for a meal at the end of the day.