Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion

In the U.S. there is this balance between religion and free speech. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and other religious bodies are allowed a greater freedom than perhaps anywhere else in the world, even though they do tend to insert themselves into the political process and try to make their religious views into laws that the rest of us non-religious (or non-whatever-they-are) have to follow. The worst offender in the U.S. is, of course, Christianity (of which there are an annoyingly large number of varieties) due to the fact that they are the largest body of religious folk in the country. The Christians here even make a point of trying on occasion to harass other religions into silence and often present themselves as having a special right to dominate all other views.

Now I think our Founding Fathers were insightful about this process re: religion, and by making it clear that we didn’t have a national religion, and that there would be no involvement between the government and the “church”, they made it possible for a big bright shiny light to enlighten the occasional entanglement of the two. We are now, and always have been, a secular state. And I am just as much a defender of freedom of religion as most Americans (often more so, because I don’t think Christianity is any more special than any of the others). If religions want to sell their goods to the public, good on them, but there is a wrinkle in the ointment.

Freedom of speech.

I’m only one of millions of Americans that openly criticize religions, and point out how ridiculous they are. I have no problem saying that if Jesus existed, he was in no way like the several versions of him in Matthew’s, Mark’s, Luke’s, or John’s propaganda efforts of near 2000 years ago. The Jewish stories present a violent and extremely unlikeable god that, if it were real, and interacted with us in today’s world, would scare the crap out of people and likely incite a revolt. And Islam, currently the most violent and hateful religion would have fared better if it hadn’t had a war mongering pedophile as its founder.

Lately, Islamic thugs have been using threats of violence and lies to shut down anyone who would say anything about their founder or religion, and the moderates are not standing up to them. We don’t hear from the moderates because the fundamentalists are more violent and willing to intimidate to shut them up. They are walking out of medical school classes because the schools teach evolution and it offends their poor religious feelings. They shut down a meeting at a London event by pushing and bullying their way in and using cameras to record those present, then threating to kill or harm anyone who said anything they didn’t like. This is what real fundamentalists look like.

In the U.S., extremist Christian groups use pressure to keep law makers in line, and to secure a spot at the table where they can try to force their agenda. It’s true that they do not, for the most part, partake in the level of violence exhibited by the Islamic nut cases. They prefer to shut the opposition up, and make heroic stands against 16 year old girls. When billboards go up that make simple and reasonable statements like, “Millions are good without God”, they ratchet up the rhetoric and lament the evil atheists and the collapse of American society. But the results of success by these Christian warriors would not do anything to strengthen this nation, and is constantly at odds with the Constitution.

And still, I think we would be worse off if we were to turn our back on the Constitution as well, and shut them up. We are better off knowing who these people really are, and holding up their actions for the moderate Christians to see and ask, why aren’t you saying more against these nut bags. Why aren’t you standing up and demanding that they stop claiming to represent all Christians? Why the bloody hell do you let them highjack Jesus?

It is pretty clear that I don’t think much of religion. The idea of gods was one of the single worst ideas man has come up with, and the foundation of organized religion has done more harm than good. And still, I think freedom of religion is the best way of going about things. Why? Because I also have the right of free speech, and can point out just how incredibly ridiculous gods, angles, demons, cherubs, heavens and hells are, while pointing  to the actions of the religious thugs (and the lack of actions by the liberal/moderate religious) . I can trumpet the fact that however slowly, the American public is losing its religious beliefs just like the majority of western European first world nations. Because of freedom of speech, I can point out (as can all the other atheists, freethinkers, agnostics, non-religious, and nones) the egregious efforts to put religious myths into the science class rooms of public schools by anti-science know nothings that also can’t wrap their heads around the dangers we face from manmade global climate change.

Now I also have quite a few relatives and friends that are believers of one type or another. Mostly Christian. Mostly conservative Christian. And for the most part, they are good people. I don’t think for a second that their beliefs in gods or Jesus, or whatever have anything to do with that. Take away the fairy tales that make up their peculiar religion and they wouldn’t suddenly run out and start raping and pillaging. They wouldn’t cease to love their children, and lose respect for those who have earned it. The vast majority of them wouldn’t suddenly lament a lack of an afterlife and lose all hope. They would go on living their lives and making sure that there was a future for their children.

I can say this because every day, men, woman and children become aware of just how silly it is to believe in this nonsense and stop being religious, and they don’t fall apart and go to the “dark side”, whatever that would be.  They may come to realize how important a good grounding in science is, or decide that religious objections to civil rights is wrong. But they would for the most part, continue their lives without a dramatic scene. It happens all the time. And that is the reason that free speech is important and why freedom of religion is too. If you force people to give up religion, they will resent it. If they see for themselves that it is hogwash, they will give it up and get on with life, and that is much more likely to stick.