Sun, 17. May 2015
Respect My Religion
A friend recently posted on Facebook seeking respect for religion. I thought about responding but time got away and I didn't get around to it.
Do I respect him? Yes of course.
Do I respect my other friends who follow a religion? Yes, very much. I don't expect everyone else to have the same views that I do.
Do I respect the Jehova's Witnesses who regularly ring my door bell? Only enough to politely tell them that I am not interested, before I close the door.
Do I respect the evangelical Jesus freak lady who accosted me in my local shopping centre last week, where I could not close the door on her? No!
When it all boils down, I have respect for religious people who respect me. This young lady did not respect me, she just adopted the missionary position and shafted me for three minutes with an over-enthusiastic one-way conversation about her Lord and Saviour, with no regard for my clear message that I am not available for recruitment to her irrational beliefs.
The one hope I have for the growing Atheist movement is that they will never go out on recruitment drives like Christians do.
The respect I might have for people who follow a religion - wihout proselytising it - does not extend to respect for their religion.
I was brought up by my Mother to be a Christian. She thought it was the right thing to do. It took me a long time but I eventually worked out that what I had been taught bore no relationship to the world in which I lived.
When you are inside the tent, doing what every other person does, it all seems quite normal. However, after you emerge and spend a bit of time in the real world, you then you peer back at what goes on inside the tent with varying degrees of astonishment, scepticism, mirth and alarm.
Christianity takes itself seriously - but looks at the other tents with astonishment, scepticism, mirth and alarm! The same goes for all of the other Irrational Belief Organisations. They can't all be right. They can all be wrong. The irrational beliefs and the practices of religion are all ripe for criticism.
So I respect the person but not the dogma. If religious folks get "offended" by that, it is of little concern to me. Why should crazy ideas be exempt from criticism?
So who is it that I disrespect? I can think of a few off the top of my head.
- People who promote the myth that religion owns morality.
- Priests who propagate unsubstantiated dogma.
- Those who offer unprovable post-mortem survival.
- Religious organisations who gang up on politicians.
- Politicians who cannot leave their religion at home.
- Churches covering up crimes against women and children.
- Meek congregations protecting paedophile priests.
- People who use religion as a cause to fight and kill for.
- Proselytisers and missioneries.
- Church organisations who prey on vulnerable people.
- The hypocrisy of church leaders.
- Those who believe that it is ok to brainwash children.
- Religious influence in schools and other institutions.
- People who dismiss evidence which does not confirm their belief.
- Religious intolerance.
- Religious rejection of secularism (equality).
- The expectation of automatic - yet unearned - respect.
The list could go on - but respect needs to be two-way and the religious demand for respect is not always deserved and is often not reciprocated.
We only have one life and we should all learn to get on with each other in this world, whatever our personal beliefs.