Are Smoking an Religion arguments potential analogues for each other?
Because I have a vested interest in both the 'smoking issue' and the 'religion issue', I've been following both quite a lot and I've notice a rather amusing analogue between the two.
This is amusing because it's exactly the opposite of what I would expect -- Non-Smokers sound like Atheists/Nontheists and Smokers sound like people of faith. You have no idea how amusing this is to me because I am a pretty vehement non-smoker and so I always had a holier-than-thou attitude toward those who choose to smoke. Although, when I did the role reversal thing, I realized that, well, I might be wrong to force my choices on others.
I've dug up a few choice examples to show what I mean. These are cut-n-pastes from various nodes with identities changes to protect the insightful:
"If we're in the library, i won't complain that your nonsmoking is bothering me" and "You never hear complaints about people not praying in public"
"Don't blow smoke in people's faces, that's just rude as hell." and "..don't force your religion on me, it offends me."
"As far as parents who smoke around their young children ... is concerned, it's just more evidence that morons shouldn't have kids." and "Forcing religion on young children will ... give them some painfully simplistic concept of whatever higher being(s)"
This illustrates a lot about the way the human psyche works and how views on the same type of issue can be changed by altering a few keywords. The arguments are nearly interchangeable except for the planes they operate on.
This could lead to a couple of conclusions, on of which is the question that do we really feel strongly about the issues at hand or simply about the structure of the issues? Is the battle more important that the insult?
If I had any sort of psychology experience, I'm sure there is a coherent reasoning for all this, but as for me I feel it demonstrates one eternal fact: humans need to 'fix' themselves before they start trying to 'fix' each other.
If any psych' majors have any insight, I for one would love to hear them. If anyone else wants to attack me, go ahead. You can now flame me, I am full of love. | 
