In response to the extremist/intolerant behavior of extremists on the Christian Right and Islamic Fundamentalists, there is a natural reaction to regard organized religion in all its manifestations as being fundamentally flawed, cruel, intolerant, and completely out of place in the modern world. Many have become very vocal in their claims that neither God nor any type of supernatural deity exists. That is their right of course but that is a right that stops with them.
It is no more the right of a non believer to mock, denigrate, and pass judgment on those who are believers any more than it is the right of believers to mock, denigrate, and pass judgment upon those who are non believers. The right to believe is as absolute a right as is the right not to believe for as Jackie Robinson once said, the "first freedom for all people is freedom of choice."
At the heart of every religion is the desire to give comfort, refuge, and inner peace to those in distress. That is the underlying desire and theme of every prayer in every Faith and if by believing, men, women, and children find that comfort, refuge, and inner peace so lacking in the world then it is not for any non believer to ridicule and condemn them for doing so for they have just as much right to find solace in their belief in a Higher Power as those who take comfort in believing that no such Higher Power exists.
It is wrong for a non believer to tell a believer that God does not exist; that the Faith they practice is a sham for in doing this they are no better than those who would seek to proselytize non believers and through the force of shame seek to compel them to believe as they believe for in the final analysis no one can be forced to believe or not believe anything without their consent. We and we alone determine whether or not we believe that God exists and we and we alone determine whether we believe that God does not exists.
Let us not forget that nations of atheists & non believers are guilty of their own fair share of human atrocities as well. For recent proof we need only see the tens of millions of Soviet citizens slaughtered by Joseph Stalin between 1924 and 1953 in the Communist ruled Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. We only need look to China post 1949 or Cuba post 1959. These are but a few examples of the many non believing Republics which have slaughtered millions of people for in the end a religion is only as good or as bad as the people who practice it. The same is equally true of non believers as well.
No human being, whatever his/her beliefs, has a monopoly on truth and no one is a paragon of virtue. We are all prisoners to our personal prejudices and we are all burdened by human failings. It is just a matter of degrees. So if a person says that they believe in God, Allah, Buddha, etc; then that's their business. Unless they make a concerted effort to make you believe like they do then you have absolutely no right to denigrate them for having their beliefs; to tell them that there is no such thing as God and that their religion is a sham. Doing so makes you no different and no better than those religious extremists you condemn. Leave people to their beliefs and and allow them to worship as they choose for again the right to believe is just as valid as the right not to believe and therefore both rights should be equally protected and equally respected for in the end they are nothing more than human rights.
It is no more the right of a non believer to mock, denigrate, and pass judgment on those who are believers any more than it is the right of believers to mock, denigrate, and pass judgment upon those who are non believers. The right to believe is as absolute a right as is the right not to believe for as Jackie Robinson once said, the "first freedom for all people is freedom of choice."
At the heart of every religion is the desire to give comfort, refuge, and inner peace to those in distress. That is the underlying desire and theme of every prayer in every Faith and if by believing, men, women, and children find that comfort, refuge, and inner peace so lacking in the world then it is not for any non believer to ridicule and condemn them for doing so for they have just as much right to find solace in their belief in a Higher Power as those who take comfort in believing that no such Higher Power exists.
It is wrong for a non believer to tell a believer that God does not exist; that the Faith they practice is a sham for in doing this they are no better than those who would seek to proselytize non believers and through the force of shame seek to compel them to believe as they believe for in the final analysis no one can be forced to believe or not believe anything without their consent. We and we alone determine whether or not we believe that God exists and we and we alone determine whether we believe that God does not exists.
Let us not forget that nations of atheists & non believers are guilty of their own fair share of human atrocities as well. For recent proof we need only see the tens of millions of Soviet citizens slaughtered by Joseph Stalin between 1924 and 1953 in the Communist ruled Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. We only need look to China post 1949 or Cuba post 1959. These are but a few examples of the many non believing Republics which have slaughtered millions of people for in the end a religion is only as good or as bad as the people who practice it. The same is equally true of non believers as well.
No human being, whatever his/her beliefs, has a monopoly on truth and no one is a paragon of virtue. We are all prisoners to our personal prejudices and we are all burdened by human failings. It is just a matter of degrees. So if a person says that they believe in God, Allah, Buddha, etc; then that's their business. Unless they make a concerted effort to make you believe like they do then you have absolutely no right to denigrate them for having their beliefs; to tell them that there is no such thing as God and that their religion is a sham. Doing so makes you no different and no better than those religious extremists you condemn. Leave people to their beliefs and and allow them to worship as they choose for again the right to believe is just as valid as the right not to believe and therefore both rights should be equally protected and equally respected for in the end they are nothing more than human rights.
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