RE: Any other atheists just feel an acute intolerance for religious people?
February 10, 2017 at 12:30 am
Religion played a very big role in screwing me up, badly, from an early age,
and destroying my family.
I am personally of the opinion that the whole constitutional protection of "freedom of religion" was a fatal error.
We should have distinguished, instead, the difference between Faith, Belief, and Dogma,
and constitutionally protected an individual's right to have Faith in God, without risk of harassment,
to even cherish whatever Belief structure they personally want to cherish, about god,
but to give carte blanche protection to "religion" is also to protect the right to dogmatize, to brainwash,
and to ask for special treatment.
A person shouldn't be oppressed or persecuted or denied equality because they have faith that god exists,
or even due to what they happen to believe ABOUT god's nature,
but no-one should have the "right" to raise their kids in a religion,
as if the kids are their chattel, or property, to brainwash,
without rights of their own....as my parents did to me;
without having the right to be equally educated on Atheism or other religions of the world being given equal time and equally thorough exploration and explanation, so the kid can make up his own mind;
no-one should have the right to insist that a public, taxpayer-funded school should be a venue for the practice of their religion;
I support your right do it on your own time and your own property or in your own church, without harassment;
but my tax dollars shouldn't support your stupid dogma,
and my kids didn't go to a public school to be exposed to your stupid dogma.
And no-one should have the right to state unproven theories to someone else as if they are undisputed facts.
In any other context, that would be false advertising.
I took accountability for sorting it out for myself, against a family that was devout and hardline on religion.
It took me almost 40 years. I had no help. I did it whilst distracted, whilst troubled; I did it with logic and my own untrained desire to think critically and in a disciplined fashion. I read no books by Atheist writers, nor watched any videos. I succeeded in separating the idea of religion, from the idea of god, on my own;
yet I respect the rights of others to believe whatever the fuck they want to.
As long as you don't pass it off as fact, or use to it to manipulate or hurt people, I don't care.
But I expect others to be as accountable.
Being brainwashed and raised in a religion does not defend perpetuation of an evil, IMO.
People who shy from confronting logic about the holes in their dogma get no pity from me,
unless they're only 5 years old or something.
and destroying my family.
I am personally of the opinion that the whole constitutional protection of "freedom of religion" was a fatal error.
We should have distinguished, instead, the difference between Faith, Belief, and Dogma,
and constitutionally protected an individual's right to have Faith in God, without risk of harassment,
to even cherish whatever Belief structure they personally want to cherish, about god,
but to give carte blanche protection to "religion" is also to protect the right to dogmatize, to brainwash,
and to ask for special treatment.
A person shouldn't be oppressed or persecuted or denied equality because they have faith that god exists,
or even due to what they happen to believe ABOUT god's nature,
but no-one should have the "right" to raise their kids in a religion,
as if the kids are their chattel, or property, to brainwash,
without rights of their own....as my parents did to me;
without having the right to be equally educated on Atheism or other religions of the world being given equal time and equally thorough exploration and explanation, so the kid can make up his own mind;
no-one should have the right to insist that a public, taxpayer-funded school should be a venue for the practice of their religion;
I support your right do it on your own time and your own property or in your own church, without harassment;
but my tax dollars shouldn't support your stupid dogma,
and my kids didn't go to a public school to be exposed to your stupid dogma.
And no-one should have the right to state unproven theories to someone else as if they are undisputed facts.
In any other context, that would be false advertising.
I took accountability for sorting it out for myself, against a family that was devout and hardline on religion.
It took me almost 40 years. I had no help. I did it whilst distracted, whilst troubled; I did it with logic and my own untrained desire to think critically and in a disciplined fashion. I read no books by Atheist writers, nor watched any videos. I succeeded in separating the idea of religion, from the idea of god, on my own;
yet I respect the rights of others to believe whatever the fuck they want to.
As long as you don't pass it off as fact, or use to it to manipulate or hurt people, I don't care.
But I expect others to be as accountable.
Being brainwashed and raised in a religion does not defend perpetuation of an evil, IMO.
People who shy from confronting logic about the holes in their dogma get no pity from me,
unless they're only 5 years old or something.