[quote=ShonHarris]-Ichthys history-[/quote]

Hm, I wasn't anywhere near that familiar with the history of the symbol. Interesting stuff. If it was far less religiously motivated than I thought, then that makes the point even less relevant to the discussion than I previously thought. :lol

[quote=ShonHarris]No, please, can it be religiophobia? I mean, religio means wisdom, reverence to an idea, right, so Fear of Wisdom? I love that. 

I have to agree with you, Jorick, about religion not being an innate characteristic -- but let's rectify that statement a bit. Religion [I]was[/I] an innate characteristic with rituals and stories tied into every bit of one's culture. In many countries and for much of time Cultural Heritage included Cultural Wisdoms, the latter often tying directly to the mythos of their people. These mythos, or in other words stories, need not be about gods or faith, but merely wisdom and truths seen as sacred. Typing this, I guess one would liken mythos to philosophy, in that they investigate how the world and reality works, albeit taking a more symbolic than physical path. The point is I think this deep rooted connection between culture and faith-community does, in a way, make the characteristic innate in that one does not choose into what culture they're born and raised within. Even if one turns away from their faith-community early on, they still have those stories about the manger, the man and the whale, and all that jazz going around in their heads. All that said, I believe America is stepping away from this connection as our population becomes more secularist so that, someday, theism may gain its own word in terms of bigotry.

All that said, I agree with you. For very long the religious have outnumbered the otherwise, and while there may be terms against particular religions or non-believers, with religion usually meaning power, there aren't many against it as an entire entity. It's hard to use oppressive language against an overwhelming oppressor.[/quote]

No, please, can it be anything that actually means hatred against religion rather than making the same etymological faux pas that we did with homophobia? Fear of sameness =/= hatred of homosexuality. Fear of wisdom =/= hatred of religion. It's a funny idea that I'm sure proponents of religion would love, because then they could try to spin it (more than they already do) as people being afraid of "the truth" and so forth, but it simply does not suit the actual thing being talked about.

Also, no, religion never was an innate characteristic expressly because it is a cultural thing. The definition of innate is "existing in one from birth; inborn." If you can take a newborn from one culture at birth, then transplant it into a completely different culture, its innate characteristics would remain the same because they are innate. A child born into a Muslim culture but transplanted into a Buddhist one would in all likelihood become a Buddhist. Just because people were (and still are in some places) stuck with the culture they were born into does not mean that cultural learning was innate; the very fact that one could go against these things rather than having them permanently and unalterably from birth means they were not innate. This isn't even a matter of opinion, it's a matter of definition and fact.

As for the last part, yep, that's what I was getting at with my first point about why no such catch-all term for anti-religious hate exists. I wouldn't be surprised to see such a term (or maybe a specific one for anti-Christian hatred, since the two other big ones in the western world already have their own terms) arise in the near future though.