Shouldn't Atheists learn to accept religion?

[The Grand Nudger]

Similarly, am I being told to respect something or someone that states, in no uncertain terms.... that I'm a sick and broken creature  who can only be cured by stringing up the better man - and all of this without even knowing so much as my name......?

Why should I?  Just to get along? I don't want to get along with that...I want it gone. I mean hell, acceptance is easy. They can shout their shit on every rooftop..I'll hand them a megaphone. I'm pretty sure that's the best way to get rid of it.

[Esquilax]

Interrogating religious beliefs is a function of respecting them. We investigate every other belief that it is possible to hold: we've investigated the shape of the earth, the positions and movements of the planets, biological diversity... every aspect of science, really. Investigation is one of the key elements of our rise as a species and as a culture, and when we find that a specific belief isn't supported by the fruits of our investigation, we leave it by the wayside until such time as new evidence supports it. That's why we don't use leeches in hospitals anymore, why we've got standardized design elements for aircraft, and so on. We've also investigated religious claims using the same method, and found them to be unsupported.

What is so disrespectful about treating religious beliefs the same as any other belief we've come across, as a species? How is it disrespect merely because some people don't like the conclusion we've come to? In what way is equality disrespect?

You know what'd be disrespectful? Giving religion special treatment, using kid gloves around this particular belief for fear of hurting the fee fees of its adherents. You want disrespectful, look to the undeserved leg up certain people want to give religion, the condescending epistemological training wheels that we're being asked to put on this particular set of beliefs because somehow religion isn't able to hack it under the same conditions as every other belief, yet "needs" to succeed anyway because its adherents would be sad to see religion in the same bin as the flat earth and phlogiston.

Don't put religion in a fucking play-pen so it won't get disturbed by the adult beliefs going about their business, and then hector me about respect.

[Alex K]

People should be respected until they prove that they don't deserve it. Beliefs should not be respected until it's proved that they do deserve it.

Brilliant.

[downbeatplumb]

I'm not trying to upset anyone here. This is my personal opinion and I just want to know if anyone agrees with me. I see so much hate flying around on the internet from both atheists and religious people and I really don't think any of it is nessesary.

I don't know what atheism is to you, but for me it's just a simple view: I don't believe in God. I get very annoyed when religious people try to convert me back to faith (I have one very devout family member who really irritates me) and I think that needs to stop. There's nothing wrong with not believing.

But I also don't have a problem with faith.

It really surprised me to see that atheists on the internet seem to have very little respect for religion. I understand that perspective- there really is no sense of logic to it, it's seems silly, and it can be dangerous. But I also think that in moderate amounts it can be a very good thing. Some people (most people) are comforted by faith in a god, and I really think it's something many people need in their lives to feel whole. I think that's probably why they so often don't understand how atheists can go without a God. Religion isn't required by all people to feel happy, but for some people it definitely is. I don't feel that this is a failure on the part of those people, but apparently many other athiests do.

I think religious faith can contribute a lot to a persons life. Not every persons life -I certainly dont' want it- but why else would it have persisted so long if it didn't mean something? Tolerance of differing beliefs isn't just for athiests. I think it's important that we remember that all beliefs should be respected, even if they seem ludicrous to us.

So what do you guys think?

I didn't have a problem with faith until 9/11 showed me what properly motivated theists were capable of.
Religion poisons minds and is used to excuse atrocities and oppression the world over, that it occasionally has some positives does not make up for this. it is a divisive force and our society should have out grown it.

[The Grand Nudger]

Find me the positives, - of religion...lol.....

[Whateverist]

I will respect a person's right to hold their own beliefs so long as their beliefs do not harm others. I will not respect the actual beliefs if I find them to be irrational or delusional or both.

Rarely I really do respect some pro-god beliefs.  More often, respecting the rest means refraining from spitting on the bible until they're out of sight.

[Whateverist]

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.

[Angrboda]

Perhaps respecting the other's beliefs means acknowledging that, in a different world, you could have become rationally convinced of the same things. I'm wary of disrespecting another's beliefs simply because I cannot see a rational path to them from the starting point of my own. Chad once remarked something about how when reasonable people disagree, they say the other person is 'mistaken', not that they are being irrational. In my opinion, we are all at the mercy of factors and biases which shape our beliefs along lines that are guided not so much by reason as by chance; the chance of being born in a certain culture, of having specific proclivities, and possessed of biases which channel our conclusions more surely than does reason. I may think the other's beliefs are ridiculous, but no more so than my own. We all come to where we are by a crooked path

[Losty]

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.

I didn't mean we should teach people not to believe. I only meant the more we educate people (just normal education) it will die out.

You may disagree but I would say human beings are now more intelligent than they ever have been in the past. I also think we will only continue to become more intelligent.

[FatAndFaithless]

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.

I didn't mean we should teach people not to believe. I only meant the more we educate people (just normal education) it will die out.

You may disagree but I would say human beings are now more intelligent than they ever have been in the past. I also think we will only continue to become more intelligent.

Agreed.  The more we learn about our universe, the less we need to appeal to unfalsifiable mysteries to explain it.  Eroding religion isn't the objective of education, but it's a pleasant side-effect.