We’re in the 21st century, and the vast majority of us still believe in an utterly and obviously fictional creator deity. Plenty of people, even in developed countries with decent educational systems, still believe in ghosts or magic (e.g. voodoo). And I–an atheist and a skeptic–am told I need to respect these patently false beliefs as cultural traditions.
Fuck that. They’re bad cultural traditions, undeserving of respect. Child-proofing society for these intellectually stunted people doesn’t help them; it is in fact a disservice to them to pretend it’s okay to go through life believing these things. We should demand that people contend with reality on a factual basis by the time they reach adulthood (even earlier, if I’m being completely honest). We shouldn’t be coddling people who profess beliefs that are demonstrably false, simply because their feelings might get hurt.
How is respect in this context any different than tolerance?
I think dismissing people based on their beliefs is essentially saying I should only value the opinions(tolerate) of those who agree with me. Taken to the extreme that could easily lead to anyone with ‘bad’ beliefs being forcibly reeducated. Sound familiar?
I don’t think the OP meant to discount opinions of “anyone that disagrees with him” but rather to discount the opinions based in supernatural.
It also doesn’t seem to me that the OP is really interested in “forced reeducation” but rather reducing influence - probably through ridicule, deplatforming or similar actions.
And ridicule is discriminatory and excluding, of you don’t respect someone just ignore them and leave them alone and if they follow harmful dogma then inform them respectfully how that could be harming them but don’t go amd be disrespectful towards them or target them out for having beliefs which you personally disagree with
That same targeting behaviour is what reddit atheists do
Edit since some people need additional context: I’m not tolerating intolerance with my comment and any hateful bigoted views should be called out and appropriate action should be prevented to prevent intolerance and bigotry
But we shouldn’t harrass and / or intimidate people with beleifs we don’t believe in if they do not bring harm to others and / or incite or discuss bringing harm to others
For example: someone who holds the spiritual belief that there is more than phyiscal reality isn’t harming someone, this is non-harmful
Someone who has beleives that they should exterminate those that don’t follow their religon or force everyone to conform to their religon, that is harmful
I personally take the position of calling out bigotry and / or intolerance (anything that will harm someone) because it needs to be called out but at the same time I will call out unjustified ridicule and / or discrimination for non harmful beleifs because people like reddit atheists and even some atheists outside of reddit have unjustifiably targeted those with non harmful beleifs for discrimination and / or ridicule
Am I allowed to be disrespectful when they’re calling for my death and taking away my rights?
Read my comment,
I absolutely agree with you calling out harmful actions as you have described “calling for my death and taking away my rights” because Tey are harmful beleifs
I just don’t agree with people being disrespectful towards non harmful beleifs and ridiculing and / or discriminating against those with non harmful beleifs
Stupid logic. Following this, we should just leave Nazis alone instead of curbing them. Predators and abusers would also “be left alone”.
Think a bit before throwing your opinion to the ether.
Read the edit to my comment
If you “dismiss” the “belief” of gravity, I can drop a bowling ball on your head and you’ll quickly be reminded of it. If I dismiss the existence of a god, literally nothing happens anywhere and nothing you do can change that.
Don’t confuse belief with religion. Those are fundamentally different concepts. Personal belief is harmless. Noone really knows, so when i believe god X exists, then all is fine.
Religion is a cult where people are normalized and told to believe what the “real” belief should be. And dare not to challenge it! And dare not to leave it!
One is harmless and a personal quest to find truth or meaning in the universe, the other a political instrument to rule sheep into submission. And the one that preaches to be good is the real evil.
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Yet no one is answering the question. I’m merely pointing out that respect for another’s viewpoint and tolerance are closely related. Yes, I did to make a point. I was trying to make a reference to the paradox of tolerance.
The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually ceased or destroyed by the intolerant.
The OP’s title is very intolerant of other people and is a therefore imo a bad take.
But that is totaly in line with the Paradox. You don’t have to be tolerant to people and their beliefs if they use it in a malicious way. One look at what is currently going on in the US should be enough to say that religion in politics is a very bad idea and should not be tolerated. Idc if a random Dude believes in Jesus, Allah or the flying spaghetti monster, that doesn’t concern me, but if that dude uses those believes to enforce how I and everyone else has to live then that is a problem.
People are dying because of millennia old beliefs that are way outdated and were highly modified throughout time to fit certain agendas. I think that it is in everyones best interest if we let those beliefs be in the past, where they belong.
It’s more an “I don’t respect the opinion of those that think the Easter Bunny is real”