Why should we have to respect religions?

[Kadagar_AV]

Why should we have to respect religions?

If someone would paint his toenails blue every odd week and bark at the moon we would label him crazy.

If someone can't work every 7th day and insists on a girl being pregnant from "god" we have to respect* him.

My humble question is, why do we have to respect religion? I mean, most educated people from where I come from would scream "are you nuts?!", but yet this board clearly regulates that we must respect religion.

What religion?

Can I make up my own?

Don't get me wrong, I really do not want to make a own religion... But the question remains, why do we have to respect religion?
Why can't we challenge it?
Why can't we laugh at it?
Why can't we mock it?

NOTE that the question is WHY, the reason of the thread is not to laugh or mock religion. I just wonder why we cant.

We can laugh at someone saying that there is an alien who will burn the USA in one year unless the states sacrifices 100.000.000 Nike boots, but we cant laugh at someone saying we have a life after life?

So again, why do we have to respect religion? Why is religion different from anything else?








* "respect" him in the same way you tell him his childs are beautiful and his wifes cooking is GREAT.

[pevergreen]

Its not polite to mock what someone believes in.

Different people take it to different levels. I have a friend IRL who won't see Clash of the Titans (the movie) due to it having 'pagan' gods in it. Its not polite to mock something she believes so whole-heartedly in.

Sure you can do all of them, theres a time and a place though. This, I guess, is not the place to mock it. Laugh and challenge sometimes, but not all the time.

I try to respect everyone's beliefs, and in turn I hope they respect mine.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Because like it or not, it's a big part of the foundation our society is built upon. Disrespect religion = disrespect society itself. With the "newer" examples you cited, they're really not part of that foundation, so they're considered fair game.

[rory_20_uk]

Its not polite to mock what someone believes in.

Different people take it to different levels. I have a friend IRL who won't see Clash of the Titans (the movie) due to it having 'pagan' gods in it. Its not polite to mock something she believes so whole-heartedly in.

Sure you can do all of them, theres a time and a place though. This, I guess, is not the place to mock it. Laugh and challenge sometimes, but not all the time.

I try to respect everyone's beliefs, and in turn I hope they respect mine.

Most religions aren't based on respect - as your friend so aptly showed. Theirs is right, everyone else is going to Hell / should be killed / is subhuman. Why should I accept their prejudice merely as it's been around for a long time?

[Rhyfelwyr]

Most religions aren't based on respect - as your friend so aptly showed. Theirs is right, everyone else is going to Hell / should be killed / is subhuman. Why should I accept their prejudice merely as it's been around for a long time?

Just because you don't agree with someone doesn't mean you can't respect them.

For example, I do not think all atheists are scum of the earth, many of them are better people than their Christian counterparts. Or another example, when me and PVC have our free will determinism debate, we respect each others wordlviews in that they make sense and come from strong well educated traditions, without saying that we are both right. On the other hand, we have less respect for, say, the modern day Evangelical take on the matter, since it doesn't make sense really.

[rory_20_uk]

Viewing others as wrong / inhuman / moving targets doesn't leave a lot of room for respect.

Judeism: Jews are the "chosen people". So, the rest of us are less important
Islam: Infidels are not put in the "we agree to disagree" category
Christianity: what is written tends to be more into converting rather than killing, but the lengths some will go to "save" a soul...

[Rhyfelwyr]

Viewing others as wrong / inhuman / moving targets doesn't leave a lot of room for respect.

So you don't respect anyone who has any sort of religious faith, since you think they are wrong?

Personal qualities can be tied to a person's beliefs, but it's ofen a lot more complicated that that. If you take the average person, and raise them in different environments, they will end up with completely different views. If we were all born and raised a four hundred years ago, the chances are that all of us would be religious and view atheism as some sort of quirky ideology associated with political radicalism.

[Pannonian]

Viewing others as wrong / inhuman / moving targets doesn't leave a lot of room for respect.

Judeism: Jews are the "chosen people". So, the rest of us are less important
Islam: Infidels are not put in the "we agree to disagree" category
Christianity: what is written tends to be more into converting rather than killing, but the lengths some will go to "save" a soul...

How does the C of E fit into this?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Why should we have to respect religions?

If someone would paint his toenails blue every odd week and bark at the moon we would label him crazy.

Would we? What about someone who checks twice to make sure they have their keys before leaving the house, and in their spare time pretends to be a warlord in ancient Japan, sending thousands of men into battle? Is he an obsessive compulsive megalomaniac?

How many of our behaviors and beliefs would be "crazy" to someone from another culture or time?

With religion, people usually believe to the level of sophistication that works for them.

Many of our innate psychological beliefs/assumptions are actually just cognitive biases. Religion is just one of them.

You aren't crazy if you see a face in the clouds are you?

So it's difficult to make the determination of which beliefs are respect worthy.

[Reenk Roink]

You basically answered your own questions Kadagar (GH made it explicity). We respect these religions because they are such an innate part of our society, and the beliefs are so widespread.

I, for example, think it is is pretty odd that people don't believe in God, or believe that scientific theories actually describe the real world, or that there is a natural causality, etc, but these (except the first) are some pretty deeply ingrained beliefs in (our) society.

The fact is that the dominant world religions exercise such influence on so many people's lives, that even among those who don't hold to them, many (rightfully so) shy away from mockery (though they may engage in always tactful criticism). It's why, for example, those Danish cartoons were such a retarded idea.

Think about why say Catholicism is treated and dealt with differently then Scientology.

[PanzerJaeger]

Common courtesy.

[miotas]

There's no reason you have to hold any respect for them, just don't disrespect them.

[Lemur]

Common courtesy.

Can't improve on that for logic, sensibility or concision.

[Beskar]

I think you can insult religion all you like, however, just expect to recieve insults back from those following religion. As such, it boils down to common courtesy, if you want to get along with those people with those beliefs, you have to make sacrifices.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Can't improve on that for logic, sensibility or concision.

I disagree, I don't think it is common courtesy to let everyone go about without their ideas challenged on a daily basis simply because you are too lazy to go along with having your own ideas challenged as well. How is a Democracy supposed to grow and flourish if the public's ideas are no longer in a free market of competition but instead in their own isolated bubbles becoming individual ideological Japan's circa Tokugawa shogunate?

[Scienter]

Common courtesy.

This.

I try to respect other people's beliefs when they differ from mine because I expect the same treatment from them. I don't expect people to believe what I do, and so long as they don't demand that I conform to their beliefs, everything is ok. To each their own, so long as they're not impacting or harming others.

[drone]

What about the reverse? Do religions have to respect us? There generally isn't much of that going on.

[caravel]

What religion?

Can I make up my own?

Yes

And yes.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Yes

And yes.

Yes

And yes.