Are we obligated to repect someone's religious beliefs?

People always tell me, "Mike, you should respect people's religious beliefs." If I tell you that I believe that Tennessee is on the West Coast, you have no obligation to respect my belief. Which is why I don't respect anyone's belief in Bronze Age or Iron Age pseudoscience (astrology, psychics, ESP, reincarnation, ghosts, etc.) or mythology (religion).

For those who want to know. To answer the question, "Are we obligated to respect someone's religious beliefs? The answer is no.

Don't question my faith, don't say mean things about religion.

You must respect me for my belief. You'll never get me to stop believing in God. The people who don't ask Christ to be in their hearts don't get it. (They are immoral, sinners, they are lost. Oops, I won't say this to anyone but just think this.) I don't want to hear about you saying my religion is mythology. I don't want to hear it. Don't tell me to think about my faith! La la la la la, I can't hear you.

I want you to shut up. How about burning you at the stake? That will make you shut up. Oops! I'd go to jail for murder. Oh hell, what a bitch. I can't burn you at the stake.

Why bring up past horrors of Christianity? There is nothing similiar about today's (21st Century) Christians and those Christians in the 1500s. In the 1500s Christians wanted nonbelievers to shut the hell up. (Hee hee, they definately got them to shut up by burning them at the stake.)

We, the Christians of today, are not like the Christians of the past in any way, shape or form. Well hell, we don't burn nonbelievers at the stake! We don't do this! We are not like them. (Whispering. We don't want to go to jail.)

What are we like today? We'll vote against them. We'll tell them they are immoral. We'll tell them they must respect our beliefs. We'll try to Christianize them by making Christianity into US Law. Nope. We are not like the Christians in the 1500s.

This time we are going to do it right. We've learned from our past Christian brothers. We will change the law so that we can get them when they are young and indoctrinate them. If you still resist our mythology, we'll change the law and make you believe.

Oh... we Christians don't do that to people today (2010), what are you talking about?? Why would anyone accuse Christians of being mean to other people and trying to force people believe in our mythology?

You need a list?

"In God We Trust", "...one nation under God..." (Both of these phrases were added recently in the 1950's by Christians), trying to teach pseudoscience in school, voting against gays, parents holding financial aid from children who are gay, kicking gays out their house when they are young, making life so unbearable for young gays that they commit suicide, refusing to treat gay relatives the same as they treat their straight relatives, parents ignoring their gay son's or daughter's partners, relatives refusing to talk about their gay son's or daughter's partners, relatives not inviting their son's or daughter's gay partners to family functions, etc.

Do I need to list more? I could write for week after week about the way Christians mistreat others in the name of their religion. The list is endless.

I do declare, we the Christians of today (2010) are NOTHING like the Christians of the 1500s.

The atrocities of the Catholic Church by Christopher Hitchens

If you like Christopher Hitchens and are not fond of the Catholic Church (or if you really don't know much about the atrocities committed by the Catholic Church and would like to know more), you might like this video.

And if you feel that God-bashing is still taboo and disrespectful to believers, in our society today, I submit this is exactly the same attitude of the church leaders when they were burning heretics (those who reject the teachings of the church) in the 1500s.

The video is from the debate called Intelligent 2 Debate. See Christopher Hitchens video here.

Note: After you watch this video, if you are still Catholic, I submit, you are part of a cult.

In Defense of Witchcraft

I can hear Christians gasping with fear and horror at the thought of talking about witchcraft. Lightning and thunder, Fear Not.

Okay, I take it back. For those religious who dislike the words "In Defense of Witchcraft," you should be worried because Sam Harris shows that the way Christians treat atheists today are very similar to their Christians counterparts, who burned witches in the 1500s.

Except that Christians today don't burn heretics (people who reject the teachings of the church) or atheists as they call us, because they know they'd go to jail for murder.

Christians today want atheists to be quiet. Christians of the 1500s wanted the same thing. Christians today say they have very little in common with their Christian counterparts of the 1500s. It's funny how Christians today can easily fool themselves.

Christians today use slightly different tactics.

• "Don't criticize my religious beliefs, I don't criticize yours." And under their breath, "If it was the 1500s, I'd burn you at the stake."
• "You need to respect my beliefs." And under their breath, "If it was the 1500s, I'd burn you at the stake."
• Atheists are immoral people." And under their breath, "If it was the 1500s, I'd burn you at the stake."
• It's a taboo in our society for people to criticize my religious beliefs." And under their breath, "If it was the 1500s, I'd burn you at the stake."
• Stop criticizing people's religious beliefs, let everyone believe whatever they want to believe in." And under their breath, "If it was the 1500s, I'd burn you at the stake."

Sam Harris' entire article is found here online: "In Defense of Witchcraft"

What is immoral about questioning a religious belief?

Christians are offended when I ask them to question their belief. What is immoral and unethical about asking someone to use their brain?

Which is immoral, A or B?

A) To ask a Christian to question the truth claims their religion makes.

OR

B) To tell Christians to blindly accept religious propositions which can never be proven.

What a perfect proposition! Make a claim that no one can prove because the proposition claims things happen after someone dies.

On Belief

If you are a Christians or claim a religious believer or believer is some power, you believe you have the ultimate truth, the only answer.

What the religious do is issue a proclamation, a statement, they are not able to engage in a conversation, debate or even a real discussion. For simply, they already know the truth. They don't have to look elsewhere. As for Christians, they have been told from their scriptures to not even think about any other religion or else!

The real question is, do you seek the ultimate truth, at all costs or do you simply think you don’t have to seek or think any further.

The religious cleverly made it taboo to criticize religion. They want to keep this taboo alive. We as humans, don’t respect religious beliefs. It’s only the religious who demand respect for their beliefs because of the insane teachings their scriptures propose.

The religious are afraid to criticize other religions because this would now allow their own religion to be open to scrutiny.

If I told you I will win the lottery this week, I know this. It is my truth. Would you respect my belief? Nope. Would you respect my belief that the world is ending tomorrow? I hope not. We don't respect beliefs, only the reasons for beliefs.

The immorality the Bible seems endless. Some examples. Christians and non-Christians. What an immoral teaching. There is no "them", non-Christians. We all share the same humanity.Why does the Bible want to divide people?

In fact, religions are a their core, immoral. They want you to join their club. You are either ni the club or out of the club. If you are in the club, you are good, if you are not in their club, you are bad. Why does not Christianity (or any religion) unite the entire world, whether we are believers or non-believers? Religion is immoral.

Doing good things for bad reasons. You better be good or you'll go to hell. How immoral of a teaching. There are many good reasons to do good things.

Love your enemy. An utterly immoral teaching. You defend yourself against your enemy. How many Christian churches are calling for the US Military to be dismantled? None.

Is this the best a god could provide us? I propose the Bible's immoral teachings are more harmful to society than good.

The religious pronounce their religion is the only real religion and all other religions are rejected. The religious know what it is to reject all other religious belief systems, except their own.

Nontheists simply go one religion further and reject all religious beliefs.