I've never heard of fundamentalist Christians being anti-left-handed. And I am one.

My point wasn't that fundamentalist Christians as anti-left-handed because of their Christianity; it's that they hold on to ancient beliefs.

* The Earth is 6,000 years old * Man walked with Dinosaurs * Being Gay is a choice * Yoga Leads to Satanic Possession * Being Left Handed is Bad

I could go on...

Yoga only existed as a religious practice until the 80's when the physical part was separated. It's not a surprise that people who grew up before the 80's don't automatically think of the non-religious version. It's hardly "ancient".

The left side being evil and related to the Devil is pretty embedded in Christianity.

Goes all the way back to Latin, too! Left = sinister, right = dexterous

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_and_sinister

I can't help but calling bull-shit on this. There could be a few fringe groups, but it absolutely does not exist in general christian theology. (Ehud was left-handed and considered a hero in the Bible)

Anything in America in the last 200 years or so?

Ya you're right as soon as they left Europe, they stopped doing all the stupid stuff and became enlightened.

http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/lspeak2.html#educators http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=49703

Thanks for the link, that's cool. Looks like 3 Catholics and an ambiguous reference to Satan, and your second link is to a cult. I guess the cult might count as fundamentalist something.

Landover is satire.

It can't be satirical if what is being lampooned doesn't actually exist.

It's certainly not a secular view.

There appears to be secular reasons behind this view in some cultures as well:

> In some areas, in order to preserve cleanliness where sanitation was an issue, the right hand, as the dominant hand of most individuals, was used for eating, handling food, and social interactions. The left hand would then be used for personal hygiene, specifically after urination and defecation. These rules were imposed on all, no matter their dominant hand. Through these practices, the left hand became known as the "unclean" hand. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_against_left-handed_peopl...

Prejudice against left-handedness is not a scientific view, but it is still a prevalent secular view. For instance, consider skateboarding, where skating left-footed is called "goofy." Or consider the multitude of left-handed children who were (and still are) being forced to write right-handed in the United States and other parts of the world. Also consider the Soviet Union where left-handers were also frowned upon despite atheism being the official view of the state.

Prejudice against the left-handed existed before Christianity. Christianity did not invent the link between left-handedness and evil. Left-handedness did not become evil because the Devil is left-handed. The Devil is left-handed because left-handedness was considered evil.

The word sinister used to mean left in Latin. You can still see that in things like optometry where the left eye is called Oculus Sinister. Seems like some sort of connection between left and evil is there for everyone in western culture at least, even if it started as something to do with religion

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/oculus+sinister

> It's certainly not a secular view.

I don't see why not. I don't know that secular people are any less prone to ignorant ideas than people who are religious.

Please don't take HN threads off on flamewar tangents, let alone religious ones.

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10265114 and marked it off-topic.