(January 16, 2015 at 8:12 am)tantric Wrote: Is it appropriate or useful to hate religion?
Yes.
People are free to believe anything they wish; however, I cannot be idly dispassionate when people attempt to force their beliefs on others with no other justification than a god commanded them to think and act a certain way based on the contemporary or ancient dicta of religious authority.
If someone's religion prohibits homosexual relations, he/she is free not to marry someone of the same sex; however, it never stops there does it? Theists use the power of the state to jail, kill, or deny civil rights to those whose nature dictates otherwise. You can sit back and chalk this up to "unusual and sometimes inconvenient rituals", but I'm having none of it and will assail the position in any non-violent manner I choose including the ridicule that such bigoted intolerant positions deserve.
Want to believe that the Earth is only 6000 years old because someone added the years between begets? Fine, I have no problem with someone wallowing in their ignorance. When these same people ignore rational argument and all the evidence to the contrary and wish to shoehorn their religion into science curricula, the gloves come off.
I scoff at those that glibly assert as fact another's impending eternal torment because they don't believe in god, the same god or don't believe in the same god exactly as prescribed. How does this attitude towards a fellow human not deserve derision? If you choose to stay, you'll discover that someone here has no compunction justifying slavery with his understanding of The Bible.
Left unchecked, theists would poison society with their primitive, prohibitive, and puerile religious doctrine. Any mealymouthed attempt to suggest otherwise must ignore their constant attempts to do so, let alone the hideous state of affairs in parts of the world where religion and politics are indistinguishable.
Keep in mind that many believers share my sentiments. Not all religious interpretations conflict with science and secular humanism. Many believers work to maintain a separation of church and state and are no more tolerant of religion's unsubstantiated intrusion into daily life than I am.
My liberty to think and act as I wish so long as I don't cause harm to others trumps the hypersensitivity of those that yearn to deprive me of such liberty.
