re: #5 CuriousLurker

Hey, don’t go to the opposite extreme and mix all atheists in with Kreyagg.

I’m an atheist. I think that the religion you believe in is a myth, and that all religions are myths. However, I also think the tendency to believe in non-real things is inherent in humanity, that it is one of the defining characteristics of mankind, and that to not believe in some religious concept is a rarity because one has to follow a particular path of thought to get there.

As long as your religious belief simply informs how you live your life and your ethics, I have no problem with it. If your religious belief tells you that you need to contradict ethics— for example, if it says that gay people don’t deserve the same rights as straight people— then I see that portion of that religious belief as harmful.

That said, the essence of any of the textual religions is interpretation of the text, so attempting to castigate a non-literalist follower of that text for the exact words inside it is missing the point by a country mile, as you demonstrate. The worst excesses of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc. have not been from following the bare text of those religions— all of which contain far more verses about charity, humility, generosity, and brotherhood than they do violence.