(June 15, 2016 at 7:20 pm)Losty Wrote:(June 15, 2016 at 7:14 pm)BlueGirl Wrote: I'm not saying that everything religious people are doing is okay. I'm not saying that we should respect extremism or allow our rights to be violated by the overly religious. I'm just trying to make the point that religion as a whole, as a concept, is not inherently a bad thing and that the idea of it is not something that should be supressed.
I disagree. I think all people should be treated with a certain amount of kindness and respect. I think all people should have the right to their own beliefs. I will not ever try to force anyone to believe something other than whatever they believe.
But religion as a whole has been harmful. Religion as a whole should be educated away. It leads to wars, murders, and other tragedies. It leads otherwise good people to do terrible things like beat their children or harass a rape victim for having an abortion.
That's further than I care to go. I think its s presumptuous to assume that something like god belief which has been around everywhere and for as long as people have been recognizably people will just be educated away. To truly be respectful of others and their right to believe what they will I can't. That doesn't mean there is a shred of doubt regarding my non belief. I can also specify particular aspects of god belief which I find ludicrous and which I don't at all respect. But I won't carry that prejudice into every encounter I have with a religious person. I wouldn't want to be someone who has to carry that every where I go.
