AngryParsley:
Having rare crazy beliefs is a bigger red flag than having common crazy beliefs.
Which should lead you to ask yourself the following. You recognize certain widely held religious beliefs as false. However, this is happening in a situation where there exists a large number of people who don't share these beliefs, some of them reputable, high-status, and publicly prominent, and you are aware of their existence and exposed to various arguments they set forth against these beliefs. But could it be that there are some equally false beliefs -- perhaps even equally "crazy" by whatever criteria you use to differentiate "craziness" from mere falsity -- that you don't recognize as such, and you might be sharing yourself? In particular, are there some such beliefs that are, unlike traditional religious beliefs, universally shared by respectable people in your society, to the point where it's unwise to be on record as questioning them?
Furthermore, your post indicates that you have some criteria that you use to assign blame for the misdeeds of members and leaders of an institution to the institution itself, and by extension to those who support it and profess allegiance to it. Now, you haven't spelled out these criteria, so I can only speculate on what exactly they are, but I'd still like to ask: are you sure that you would come off as innocent if similar criteria for the assignment of blame were applied to all the institutions to which you extend your support and allegiance?
I don't think I can give very good answers to your questions. I'm much better at morality discussion closer to the object-level.
But could it be that there are some equally false beliefs -- perhaps even equally "crazy" by whatever criteria you use to differentiate "craziness" from mere falsity -- that you don't recognize as such, and you might be sharing yourself?
Sure, but I wish to have correct beliefs.
...In particular, are there some such beliefs that are, unlike traditional religious beliefs, universally shared by respectable peo
Let's say you are interviewing a candidate for a job. In casual conversation, the candidate mentions that he is a member of a rather old and prestigious country club. You've never heard the name of the club before.
You look up the country club afterwards, and are surprised by what you read. The club refuses membership to homosexuals. It revokes the membership of couples who use birth control. Leadership positions are reserved to unmarried males.
The candidate is otherwise competent. Under what conditions would you hire him? Would you want a law passed banning hiring discrimination based on country club membership?
(The country club is analogous to a nicer version of the Catholic church. I left out a couple bad things.)
Religious discrimination is illegal in many parts of the world, and I think that's probably a good thing. Still, keeping this at the object level (no meta-rules or veils of ignorance) it seems to me that discriminating against religious people is fine. I'm curious what other people think.