Why Should I Be Respectful of Fairy Tales that Interfere with Progress?
This is a subject about which I’m somewhat conflicted. The author does a good job (in my humble opinion) of describing the ecuminical attitude of many moderate religionists towards other religions. I even think she does a good job of demonstrating how those moderates in most religions do a better job of being tolerant of other religions than they are of agnostics and atheists. And yes, I can certainly understand (having grown up a Christian and not become an atheist until my early 30s) why believers of any degree tend to become highly defensive when atheists question their religion, and I am not a militant type of atheist, so I don’t want to deliberately antagonize anyone, either.
And yet…….why should I should respect for religion? I think all religions are essentially pre-historic fairy tales and that they’ve done very little good for humanity that couldn’t have been done completely without religion. After all, if you ask the question: “Is there anything that believers can do that’s good that isn’t also done by agnostics/atheists?” the clear answer is, “No, there’s not. Agnostics/atheists can and do do all the same good things. Religion is completely unnecessary.” And when it comes to human rights in the last couple hundred years, religion has been (and continues to be) one of the biggest forces holding humanity back from reaching its fullest potential.
So tell me…….why should I “respect” religion? Because I can’t honestly think of a good reason except the obvious one: to be a decent person.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/03/why-should-atheists-have-to-show-respect-for-religion/