The problem with religion and atheism isn’t that they exist or that they naturally push one towards violence. The world is much more complicated than that. The problem is fanaticism: the exultation of one creed to such a degree that every other creed becomes not only fundamentally wrong but a desecration.
That is exactly what the extremists on both the Left and the Right just can’t seem to grasp. They are two sides of the same coin to me. We have the Right trying to push their religion on everyone, and the Left trying to push their anti-religion on everyone, both sides trying to jerk the legal system back and forth until it snaps. They both look like Islamists to me, in principle. It’s all about forcing an agenda on the entire population. What about freedom do they not get? They both think freedom is only for their side. Some things are personal and not the purview of government, but now our government itself is made up almost entirely of fanatics on the Left or the Right.
I want a government that builds my roads and defends me against invaders and otherwise gets the HELL out of my business. I could care less if I see a religious symbol in a public place, it does not burn my eyeballs out of their sockets. I could care less if you believe there’s a god or a flying spaghetti monster or a yawning black hole at the end of your life: your beliefs should be entirely your business and YOU should keep them that way. In the public sphere, how about let’s focus on handling the material issues of life that we can measure—like food, shelter, jobs, health insurance, and security.
Filed under: miscellaneous, political, religion
I agree with you: Maintain civility & leave the rest to do the rest.
Incidentally I would wish to convert you, but at least I’m honest about it & am not going to force you into something.