The one thing i have found painfully obvious, ever since that delightful moment of reason filled epiphany, which resulted in 'god' being rightfully dragged off kicking and screaming from the throne of reality, making his embarrassing but relieving entrance into the cluttered ranks of childish fairytale's, is how easy it is to offend the religious. (Previous sentence making a fine example).
A group of friends having a laugh, can generally, verbally kick dirt on each others shoes about their favourite sports team, music, sense of fashion (or lack thereof), previous choices in partners, driving habits, talking habits, political views etc. Discussions of these kinds are generally light hearted, sometimes passionate, mostly civil, but never socially taboo. So what makes religion any different? Nothing, it isn't. There is, in fact, nothing about religious opinions that entitles them to any more respect than other opinions get.
So, should the 'religious' have the right to be offended by such comments? should they be hurt, angry or resentful? Yes. Yes of course, we all have the right to be offended by any statement that 'we believe' is discourteous, but does that mean that our views warrant unconditional respect? First, i would like to make clear the distinction between respect for ones beliefs and respect for ones 'right' to hold beliefs.
In most countries in this day and age (although nowhere near enough) we are fortunate to have the right to freedom of expression, religious or otherwise, regardless of your beliefs, Theism, Deism, Mono/Poly/Pantheism etc you are entitled to them, although, one can not expect you to respect their religious beliefs, anymore than one can expect you to respect their favourite music. Respect for their 'right' to hold those views/beliefs on the other hand, is a fundamental characteristic of the kind of equality rooted in the democracy that we often take for granted.
Most people are conditioned from a very young age to avoid saying anything that might offend religious sensitivities. This avoidance creates a habitable margin for introspection and growth of religious beliefs without the external critical analysis required to correlate them with known reality.
Simply put, our beliefs inform our choices and actions in many aspects of our lives, and our actions affect the reality around us. If the aim is for our actions to have a positive effect, then we must do all that we reasonably can to make sure our beliefs are in agreement with reality. Needless to say, a well informed factual belief is just the starting point for a desired positive outcome. The fact that religious beliefs are not held to the same level of scrutiny as say, Politics,(the former influencing the state of the world just as much as the latter) due to an unfounded level of taboo placed on the topic by society, we find that religions get a free pass from the open and intellectual discourse that aids many areas of human interest, in return, this taboo only slows the progress of science and civilization due to a clash in opposing ideals.
I must stress, before you feel the need to take your anger out by attempting to silence a person who expresses an opposing belief and demand of them respect, take a moment to recognize that they owe your 'beliefs' no such respect, the same as you owe theirs none, this is not to say that we should chastise for the sake of exercising our ability to do so, rather, we should allow for a mode of discourse for such disagreements and at least respect each others right to express them.
- "In any case, the argument against the persecution of opinion does not depend upon what the excuse for persecution may be. The argument is that we none of us know all truth, that the discovery of new truth is promoted by free discussion and rendered very difficult by suppression, and that, in the long run, human welfare is increased by the discovery of truth and hindered by the action based on error." Bertrand Russell -
