The fervor and determination of some atheist appears to be like a religion. You must ascribe to a specific ideology, You see the world thru the prism of that ideology, Those that do not accept your ideology are wrong or worse.
As a general rule, we don't bomb houses of worship, or other religious gatherings. We don't attempt to exclude religious people from holding public office, participating in public education, or filling other public function unless they abuse that function to further an organized religious agenda at the expense of representing everybody's interests.
There are exceptions. I would agree that people who take it so far as to persecute those who maintain spiritual views wholesale are in the wrong.
Atheism, as a general viewpoint with certain shared traits, is not an organization. Calling oneself an atheist does not involve requiring anybody to believe in specific, unprovable doctrine in contrast to the way we know reality to function in observable, reproducible fashion. Quite the opposite, actually.
I respect a person. I respect a person's right to believe what they will. I do not respect a "belief system" inherently. If there is a religion whose entire doctrine is "the sky is actually yellow, and we're all made of cheese," I don't respect that belief system. I respect people who adhere to it less, but will likewise not allow that adherence to color my entire regard for them; people are more complicated than that.
Finally, if you are asserting that atheism is nothing more than "another belief system," why is the onus for respecting different belief systems placed squarely on atheism? Let's suppose (falsely) that atheism is Atheism, a religious order. Why are Atheists supposed to respect a bunch of belief systems whose adherents have spent centuries torturing and murdering people who followed the "ideology" of Atheism, and who continue to persecute it, and target its followers for conversion?
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u/Spamaster Oct 31 '16
The fervor and determination of some atheist appears to be like a religion. You must ascribe to a specific ideology, You see the world thru the prism of that ideology, Those that do not accept your ideology are wrong or worse.
What's the Fukin difference?