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.
Respect is for people, not ideas or beliefs.
This is great in theory. But I doubt many religious would accept the idea that you respect them as a person but don’t respect their religious ideas. It’s a big part of personal identity.
And it’s worth asking: if I don’t respect the ideas that shape your entire world view, what does it mean to respect you as a person? Just that you deserve fundamental human rights? That’s a kind of low bar.
If they can accept “love the sinner, hate the sin”, they can accept “respect the religious, hate the religion.”
So…. They can’t accept this
They could if they wanted to.