Mind Your own Religion

(2) Wall Photos:

'via Blog this'

The Atheist Truth "I give your religion as much respect as your religion gives me. There’s nothing complicated about it, and I have every right to insult a religion that goes out of its way to insult, to judge, and to condemn me as an inadequate human being - which your religion does with self-righteous gusto. When it comes to insults, your religion started this, not me. If your religion kept its big mouth shut, so would I. But given that it doesn’t, and given the enormous harm that your religion has done in this world, I’d say that I have not only a right, but a duty, to insult it, as does every rational, thinking person on this planet. Because the moment that your religion claims any kind of jurisdiction over my experience, you insult me on a level that you can’t even begin to comprehend. Even if your beliefs had substance, the arrogance of that would be insult enough. But the fact that they have no substance, and are merely a transparent raft of delusions and lies, magnifies the insult enormously. The moment you offer me any kind of scripture-based opinion, about what I should believe or the values I should hold, or especially the morals I should exhibit, then you can expect to be graphically and categorically insulted for your trouble. If I’m not allowed to express my sincerely-held belief that your religion is a crock of dangerous, evil, dehumanizing, superstitious garbage, then it seems to me that I don’t have religious freedom, but you do. Because I can assure you that I hold that view, with a passion and a solemn intensity that can match anything that you’ve got to offer. It is, for me, a core, defining belief, and a pillar of my whole reality, an absolutely unshakable fundamental conviction that resonates to every fiber of my being that your religion is, in fact, a crock of dangerous, evil, dehumanizing, superstitious garbage that pollutes and degrades the world I have to live in, and I’m not happy about it." ~ Pat Condell