Recently I was asked if you’re so secure in your atheism, why do you need to trash what others may sincerely believe? I was truly surprised by this question after the last two years of religious freedom laws being imposed on all of us in America. After seeing public servants turn their sincerely held beliefs into a political privilege to deny others civil rights. After seeing the blatant and criminal hypocrisy of the religious right propping up their orange messiah to bring about some romanticized end of the world in which they rule.

But my response is one I’ve given many times. Religious belief is fantasy no matter the level of sincerity their adherents claim to have. Sincere belief in bullshit is still bullshit no matter what army of fanatics back it up.

This opinion is based on the refusal all religions have to accept themselves as the philosophical hypothesis they are. Their unprovable claims are effectively falsehoods told in full awareness with the arguments of faith or belief piled on top of them as rational discourse. No matter how many claims of charity are echoed in cathedrals of gold and stained glass, starvation and slavery has always followed “on bended knee”.

Religion and all faith based philosophies require everyone to accept their claims as absolute truth lest be condemned to eternal damnation in their eyes. They have cleverly branded this requirement of obedience as respect for belief under a pretext they will respect the beliefs of others. Except, as we see so often it doesn’t work that way for them.

Raising hands and professing obedience to an imaginary god deserves little if any respect if that god can never be seen lest it violate that overly convenient prime tenet of faith. Handing out a few grains of rice or loaves of bread does little to solve the inequities that cause the starvation when churches occupy once fertile fields. Donations of 10% from the poor betrays much when it’s asked from an altar of gold.

They term it as submitting to a “higher power” that is beyond man but that is a twisted mockery of what civil authority calls the social contract.

Not surprisingly, they will never admit how this ability to identify the “damned souls” of others allows them to persecute and marginalize sinners for not accepting the god-fantasy. It becomes a crime against humanity when they use it to claim being the victims while gathering political and cultural power to impose their emotional requirements on the rest of us. All while being innocent “servants of the lord” carrying out divine will.

In a stroke of genius, they will claim only parts relevant to them as being important so opposition can never blame them directly…i.e. “That’s not what a REAL (insert religion) does”. It insulates them from any mortal judgement as they are protected by this shade from their higher power. Those who want a fairy tale in order to make sense of the world have had too much of this respect given to them and they once again take advantage under guise of sincerity as innocence.

No where else but in religion do we accept such flagrant ignorance of what our senses tell us in favor of what our emotions want to be true. The flaw in this thinking is emotional decision making is not based on reason nor the acceptance that their truth may not be the only truth. It is a denial of the commonalities of humanity in favor of self righteous indignation of a reality they refuse to accept. They see it as a divine right or holy mission to impose this version of slavery upon others.

Want proof? Take out an American dollar and read on the back what is says about god.

It works for them because they get to be in control as the true believers while the rest of us sinners are assigned penance from their ancient wisdom. A wisdom that vacillates between the literal and the metaphorical depending on their judgement based on their unique interpretation of verse.

ANY time these religious points of view are allowed this kind of acceptance we see time and again how they are perverted into criminality and authoritarianism. It is this imposition of a divine rule over the rest of us that I am opposed to as an atheist. The criticisms I voice seek to illustrate this hypocritical thought by attacking the roots of these superstitious fallacies the religious use to hide behind. These attacks are not directed at the person but the ideas they cling to and will defend with desperation of a cornered animal. But we must be strong against such adversity.

As an atheist I seek civil order based on reason and logic to discover ACTUAL truth instead of metaphorical truth which placates personal bigotry. MY emotional need for real truth can no longer be swayed by emotional pleas to accept another’s emotional truth because there is no immediate answer. The better option is to leave the mystery unsolved rather than impose a childish parody of an explanation.

My opinion is atheists have been taking this repression by religion for far too long because we have been reasonable to the unreasonable.

That age of reason must come to an end.