Despite years of over a decade as a fundamentalist, I am not agnostic and decidedly non-religious. Nonetheless, I certainly allow others to worship their religion and have their beliefs. That said, I find religion one of the most dangerous forces on this planet because it leaves no room for compromise, rational discussion or reason. It defines "us" and "them" and then imbues us with righteousness because we act with the authority of God. Of course this does not represent all believers, but history has shown religion to be amongst the primary motivations of some of the worst atrocities committed by humans in history.
Somehow we have to realize that there really are only two, diametrically opposed paths; either we will live together or we will wage world-wide war to annihilate one another. Unfortunately world-wide war isn't very scary to some radical believers as they believe that it heralds the coming of paradise to earth.
It scares me to see how far we've regressed from the country that believes in freedom of religion and the right to pursue of happiness for all humans.
Of course it is the same communications medium that allows me to share my thoughts here that also permit xenophobes, islamophobes, terrorists, racists and other inherently socially destructive organizations to disproportionately recruit and influence the world-wide debate. But how do we stop the beast when nut like Pastor Terry Jones with a mere 40 followers can have such influence on us all. Sure, we could overcome it by saying that we must all act reasonably, but even this optimist knows that humans are generally predisposed to group think rather than reason. So where do we go from here?
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