

Yahoo, religion and the web - adsahay
http://sahay.co/post/27542376285/yahoo-religion-and-the-web

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learc83
Using monotheism and polytheism as a metaphor here was a poor choice. I really
get tired of the myth that the polytheistic cultures of antiquity were much
more religiously tolerant than the later monotheistic cultures.

This is a myth caused by an appeal to common sense that is not supported by
the evidence. Let's take Roman society as an example. They may have had plenty
of gods to worship, but there was an official state religion with compulsory
worship, and they were hardly tolerant of deviation (see the ancient
Christians for examples).

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paradoja
Actually, romans were usually tolerant of other religions. Yes, some religions
were persecuted, but that was usually due to political reasons. Many (most?)
christians were persecuted not for not following official religion but for
creating unrest and speaking against Rome.

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learc83
By far the most extreme christian persecution was by Diocletian. His hatred
for christians began when fortune tellers, and priests of the Oracle of Apollo
told him they couldn't predict the future because of the influence of
Christians--definitely a religious rather than political reason.

>creating unrest and speaking against Rome

Those were the charges leveled against them (many times falsely) primarily by
their fellow pagan citizens who were motivated by religious intolerance not
political concern.

Most of the time the state wouldn't have persecuted the Christians had not the
people demanded it.

The Romans also had a history of banning religious cults before the rise of
Christianity.

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rickmb
Setting up a huge collection of straw men (all geeks are fanboyz), and then
beating your own chest at not being one of them. Seriously?

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Argorak
While I think the monotheists are the most outspoken (and easier to get
behind), I don't know whether the overall point is true. Continuing the purely
anecdotal style of the OP: I know a lot of people that might fall into the
monotheist camp at first glance, but once you start talking, it really isn't
true. In my circles, I can quickly name the following configurations:

* The all-out Mac/IPhone user that is constantly eying for B2G and some Linux desktops to finally hit the point where he wants to switch. * IPhone users complaining that Windows Phone hasn't taken off. * Windows users using OS X at work and being pleased by both...

I could go on and on. Once you start talking to all of those people, they will
happily admit many advantages and flaws of their platforms. The problem is
that once you picked one, people automatically assume that you dislike the
other. You won't talk much about the nice little things of a platform that you
don't use on a daily basis.

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speedRS
I couldn't agree more. I remember talking to a senior exec (acquired as part
of a startup buyout) at a previous job and he stressed that there's always
room under the big contenders (in areas they can't or don't care about) in any
market until you begin to chip away at their market share and become one
yourself. In an ideal world, I guess. Good post.

I really do want to be a Yahoo! fanboy too. Wish they would improve Flickr
before I migrate to 500px.

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geoka9
I think it's easy not to be a fanboy. But it's hard not to be a hater,
especially when it comes to the likes of MS (or what it used to be) and the
modern-day Apple.

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pokoleo
I read through this entire article and came to the conclusion: this can be
summed up into a tweet.

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batiudrami
What is the point of this article? People should see the good in all things,
not just things they're predisposed to like? Well, okay, but I that's fairly
obvious. There's a reason the term 'fanboy' is never used in a positive way.

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Raphael
Let's be honest. There's no such thing as a Yahoo fanboy.

