Every religion in the world has at least one thing in common, they all put their faith in the fact that theirs is the one true reality and that all followers of other faiths will be cast out lest they recant. The reason behind the idea is sound, for what sort of person would admit that they believe in something that is more likely than not false. Simply because the logic can be followed along its path does not mean that the logic is either accurate or applicable to the situation.
There is a perception among religious communities that some form of divine intervention has shown their people the true way. Yet somehow in a world where thousands of religions exist everyone has “evidence” that their religion is the only real one. It is obvious to all that it cannot be that all religions are true, and in the light of that they still attempt to pass off their religion as the only true one. Somehow while other religions are absurd and subject to criticism their own is considered the honest to goodness truth.
A perfect example of a normally ridiculed religion is Scientology. Across the globe Scientology is mocked for their belief that an ancient alien war was the cause for all human strife. Scientology has become synonymous with modern cult. If you start talking about Scientology in the public square as if it were fact you are almost assuredly going to be mocked openly. Yet somehow if you were to walk into the street and say that the reason for every woe in the world is that a woman was told by a talking snake to eat a cursed fig everyone immediately recognizes and in some respects accepts that belief as valid. There is no logical reason that one of these is considered insane when the other is just as impossible.
If someone were to come up to you and say that last night they rode to heaven on a magical flying horse you’d think they had spent the night consuming a large quantity of certain hallucinogens. Or perhaps not, because that is what people who adhere to the Islamic faith believe. They believe a man actually flew to heaven and had a chat with God himself who discussed the way people should live. Which strangely enough involved treating women as if they were property. This sort of absurdness is not limited to any faith in particular and by its very definition every single religion involves similar seemingly insane myths.
Worse than people somehow actually believing these stories and myths that have been passed from generation to generation they think it is OK to harass and threaten others who hold different faiths when logically theirs is just as absurd.
No religious text can substitute for real evidence. It doesn’t matter that that some book says the the world was created in seven days when all the evidence says it was created over the course of several hundreds of millions of years. There is no reason that others should be barred from learning simply because an established religion’s dogma disagrees, not because of an alternate scientific theory but instead in favor of the idea that “God did it.”
These groups somehow feel that they have the right to mock faiths such as Scientology when their own belief is just as absurd. The only difference is that instead of aliens, the Abrahamic religions believe in a talking snake. It takes a twisted person to harass these people, who have equally legitimate beliefs, yet when they themselves are targeted they claim hundreds of years of tradition as evidence to the validity of their religion.
Established beliefs shouldn’t be immune to questioning because if it were you wouldn’t even be reading this in the first place. The idea that something becomes true because you put faith in it is simply stupid. If it did make it true then no high school student would ever have to walk to school again, they’d all be flying. Faith is for those that refuse to actually attempt to learn about the world around. Having a lot of people that believe in a given faith likewise doesn’t lend credence to your arguments, if that were the case people actually would only use ten percent of their brains.
If there are going to be different beliefs they all either need to respect each other or refrain from preaching to the masses until such a date as they can prove their beliefs. In the United States of America everyone has the right to practice their religion as they wish and either you mock all religions or you mock none of them, no more preferential treatment to the established religions.
