Religion and Freedom

I spend a lot of time bashing on religion, and I think society and the world would be better off if religion died off. But as a lover of freedom, I want that death to be a natural death. I oppose all government attempts to outlaw religion or denigrate it.

This viewpoint of mine puts me at odds with other atheists. For instance, I support abortion rights, but I oppose taxpayer funding for abortion. As for prayer in public schools, that is a moot point for me because I oppose public education entirely because it serves merely as a means of state indoctrination.

I do support the separation of church and state, but I would oppose a group like American Atheists who would like to strip churches of their tax exempt status. I hate to say this, but I suspect that many atheists would like to become tyrants themselves and seek to harass and even eradicate religion through such measures as the tax code or regulation or what have you.

I think the atheist cause is just but only as a cultural revolution. I do not think religion will entirely disappear as even new religions like Scientology or the Heaven's Gate cult have sprung up in the last hundred years. I think if we got rid of God many idiots would turn to the worship of aliens and UFOs. Stupidity has no end.

What I would like to see is the rise of secularism as a permanent cultural phenomenon. Like Dawkins, Harris, and others, I agree that religion is dangerous, and it is dangerous precisely because of its dogmatic nature. Beware the person who commits atrocities for the sake of your salvation and will admit no error because his religion forbids it. In this, we find the seeds if tyranny, and it is no coincidence that the tyrants of history used religion to this end. From the divinity of Roman emperors to the divine right of kings, tyranny was able to add ignorance to fear as a means of controlling the populace.

Ultimately, the moral "legitimacy" of tyranny comes from the belief that the end justifies the means. This how both the Spanish Inquisition and Stalin could do what they did. It was for the "greater good."

With religion, there is no such thing as this greater good because it simply does not exist. There is no God. He is an imaginary construct and a collective delusion. It is harder to argue against communism than it is with religion. But communism has been shown to be idiocy, so it is the same with religion. In short, the truth will win out because lies take too much energy to maintain.

Atheists are going on the offensive like never before, and this is a direct result of things like 9/11, 7/7, and the Terri Schiavo case. Live and let live can no longer adhere because it is not in the nature of religious fanatics to leave others alone and to mind their own business. It is time for atheism to go for the cultural jugular and finish off this idiocy for all time. Religion will always exist, but these people will be seen for the babbling idiots that they are. I want people to be free to worship as they please, but I also want the right to not worship and to present my viewpoints.

I believe that reason will win. That is why freedom is important. It gives truth the chance it needs to win.

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