My father upon reading my article about an elderly gay couple’s marriage getting recognized by the state of Ohio:

It isn’t that the religious and the conservative are unable to envision the consequences of their legislative homophobia, it is that they do not have the empathy and the humanity to care.

Yup. I once thought it was enough to explain to people why their religious beliefs were obviously false. Surely it is enough that people want to be right in the things they believe. But years of atheist activism has changed me mind. We must also point out how religion corrupts our nature. Indeed, for whatever flaws with which a Christian thinks humanity is inherently cursed, we have several noble qualities. For instance, most people loathe suffering and strive to alleviate unhappiness in others. Even if humanity were somehow corrupted, we still have that going for us. And that is why it must be highlighted when religion corrupts what good of humanity remains.

I don’t mind the corruption that came with eating an apple. I care very much about ideas capable of turning the compassion of millions of people toward the opposition of love. And when otherwise good people try to keep two loving adults apart, that is precisely what has transpired. Yes, there is not a religion out there that is not transparently untrue, which is enough to wish them gone without a memory. But religions pervert societies unlike any other force, and a few hurt feelings are not a sufficient reason to keep quiet about it while admonishing those same people to reject the false.

It is for couples the the one in Ohio that I oppose religion every day.