Burning the Bible

[Strongbad]

And we wonder why people hold such disdain towards the atheist community. As you said respect must be earned, how are you to gain any if all you do is disrespect others who hold different beliefs and make assumptions of their character?

Holding a belief does not make the person an ignorant fool.

Note to self: never make jokes when posting about "sacred" beliefs because some people tend to get all teary-eyed when you do.

We shouldn't judge people because of their beliefs, but judge them by their actions. They can believe whatever they wish, but as long as they are a moral and just individual we may say nothing against them, only their belief.

I disagree. We may say whatever we wish, against their beliefs, and against them. If you think that atheists will ever be "respected" by religious folk, you are seriously deluded.

Perhaps you've had a different experience with life, but coming from a Christian childhood environment I've seen my fair share of ignorant fools, but I've also seen my fair share of those who call themselves religious and are still quite capable of being good, intelligent human beings.

Not everyone is as you say they are, simply put.

Coming from my Christian childhood environment, and speaking from my current Christian adult environment (I live in central Florida, which is almost 100% infested with fundy Baptists) every single Christian I have ever met has been a hypocrite, period. Yes, I know that they are "just human" and that their hypocrisy will be forgiven by Jesus, blah blah blah. The last thing I will ever respect is "do what I say, not what I do".

[edit:] In addition, the bible (or even holy books in general) - even though it is a myth and false - has been the inspiration for art, politics, social reform, etc. throughout history. In order to fully understand these events we need reference to the holy books of the past and present. If you were referring to an instance of non extinction of 'holy' books then I return back to my respect opinion.

I agree with the historical value of ancient texts. We should always keep at least one copy of the bible (preferably one of the big fancy ones with gold on the edge of the pages) preserved.