Shouldn't Atheists learn to accept religion?

[robvalue]

I respect people. I respect their right to hold whatever beliefs they want.

I don't respect the actual beliefs, unless I consider them respectable. And if I consider those beliefs harmful, I will speak out against them. I will do this in a general way, and if someone approaches me for a discussion, but I won't harass individuals about it.

I consider "faith" to be a harmful belief/system/whatever. It's anti-science and anti-reality. It's the foundation of all irrational action taken on behalf of religion. And it's propagated almost entirely by indoctrination, which I also speak out against.

Faith, as a method of learning facts about reality, is demonstrably a terrible method. And everyone who validates faith by supporting it, is validating the same excuse extremists use for their actions. Faith isn't rational, so you can't say your faith is good but an extremists is bad, because it has no ties with reality.

People are remarkably succeptible to the appeal to popularity, so the more people who put forward faith as anything other than gullibility are feeding this.

I don't hold them personally accountable for the things extremists do. But I do point out they are using the same tools as them.