General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The next President needs to be an atheist [View all]IamFortunesFool
(348 posts)You suggested I should go into a black church and make my pronouncement. While I agreed that I would feel no qualms in doing so, that does not mean that is how I spend my time. My OP and subsequent responses have been plainly directed at the religious fundamentalist on the right, and the never ending litany of politicians who pander to them. I am actually an extremely accommodating person, and am typically only drawn into this type of annoying and fatiguing intellectual dissent when absolutely forced to. I am not out to "convert" anybody. I merely desire for some perspective to be added to our political process. To get that, we need to actively reject the constant pandering to religious people that has become ubiquitous to our politics. Your staunch insistence that religious people should be inherently respected is ridiculous. Those who have shown respect for others (most effectively manifested by NOT infecting policy positions with religious motivations or principals) will be shown respect, and those that can't separate their beliefs from their policy should be rejected outright.
Incidentally, me having facts on my side WOULD make a compelling case for withholding measures of respect for those unwilling to face them. People that willfully ignore facts when presented with them don't deserve respect. The respect I have for Christians is determined by their exposure to education and true scientific inquiry. Folks that have been educated and still choose to believe in something that flies in the face of all reason do not receive my intellectual respect. They can still be compassionate or generous people, and earn respect that way, but they do not get any intellectual validation for their superstitions. If they don't like being thought of as superstitious then they are welcome to present evidence to suggest otherwise and I am happy to engage in learned debate with them on the subject. However, I am not in the business of wearing velvet gloves to protect the feelings of people because they can't deal with the implications of their beliefs in the face of empirical discovery.
Again, you are so steeped in identity politics you can't even see it. Respect is something earned, not inherent to anybody. Respect for human life is a principal that supersedes the minutia of politics and social order. Respect within society has to be earned on merit of ideas and behavior. They may earn my respect with their behavior. Their ideas must past the test of reason if they want them to be respected. Religious belief is not reasonable, by definition.