People think you should respect religion because they are socialized and indoctrinated into the notion that certain delusions and fictions carry as much weight as evidence and reality. Religious delusions have been violently imposed and relentlessly propagandized on humanity, the Catholic Church in fact invented propaganda; and all of the Abrahamic Religions have viciously burned themselves into the psyche of most of humanity; so to many people religious dogma is as real as gravity, the laws of physics, as their own flesh and bone. So, those delusions demand as much respect, even more respect then real matter, and actual facts.
Like KRS-ONE said: “People have more respect for a holy book, than they do for a cow on a meat hook.”
It’s really hard to shake these embedded delusions cuz it can not only alienate you from your family, but within your entire society; so we hold to these delusions, even when we become atheist or free thinkers. I’ve been to meetings of free thinkers and there was little free thought present. That’s how powerful the collective trauma has been.
I don’t respect any of these World Religions in the popular sense of respect; I don’t honor them, I’m not sensitive to their taboos or dogma, I don’t try to avoid offending the Gods, Leaders, or followers of the Religions.
I do respect them in the literal sense, (re-: again and again, backwards) (-spect: to see, to look). I look at religion over and over, in depth, I look at it in it’s historical, political, and cultural context. I respect the religion more than the followers, who don’t question and fully examine all aspects and impacts of their religions and dogmas.
If more people literally respected (& inspected) religion we’d have more atheist in the world.
The only religions I have respect for, in terms of the popular sense and use of the term are the non-Sexist, non-Imperialist, non-Racist religions; which only applies to very, very, very few faiths. All of the major and world religions are Racist, Sexist, and Imperialist; all of them. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism are the worst offenders, and I expose or call them out at every opportunity. Fuck all of them, and fuck yo feelings if reality offends you.
“Every world religion, without exception is nothing more than a male chauvinist murder cult.” – John Henrik Clarke
