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might not even get here, because right now we’re engaged in a tug of war with the past, and lately it’s been digging its heels in. And I think this is one that we really do need to win, because if we lose we’re going to find ourselves back in the Dark Ages, where knowledge is a crime and where free speech is blasphemy. And that’s really the reason why I talk about religion, and not other things.
    Peace and love to one and all, if that’s not wishful thinking.

19.
Why Does Faith Deserve Respect?
    July 19, 2007
    Why is faith worthy of so much respect? Would somebody show me the calculations, because I just don’t get it.
    People keep saying to me: “You should show a bit more respect. You don’t have to call people mentally ill just because they disagree with you.”
    Well, it’s not because they disagree with me that I call them mentally ill. It’s because of what they believe about reality, and more importantly what they want to do with those beliefs.
    If that’s all it was, just a belief, then I’d have no problem giving religion all the respect it wants, in the same way that I respect a person’s dress sense or the décor in their home. Even if I found it tasteless I would respect them enough not to say so.
    But religion is more than just a belief. Religion wants to impose a universal morality, which is why it has always attracted the kind of person who thinks other people’s private lives are their business. And giving respect to this mentality is exactly what has got us into the mess that we’re in.
    We’ve given religion ideas above its station, and we’ve persuaded it that it’s something it’s not, when the truth is that faith is nothing more than the deliberate suspension of disbelief. It’s an act of will. It’s not a state of grace. It’s a state of choice, because without evidence you’ve got no reason to believe, apart from your willingness to believe. So why is that worthy of respect, any more than your willingness to poke yourself in the eye with a pencil?
    And why is faith considered some kind of virtue? Is it because it implies a certain depth of contemplation and insight? I don’t think so. Faith, by definition, is unexamined, so in that sense, it has to be among the shallowest of experiences.
    And yet, if it could, it would regulate every action, word, and thought of every single person on this planet, because let’s not forget, even an impure thought is a sin.
    Well, I think that belief in God is an impure thought. It pollutes our understanding of reality. It gets in the way, and it brings out the worst in the best of us, so that we’re even prepared to stoop so low as to poison the unformed minds of the people we love the most, our children. By the time they’re old enough to think for themselves it’s too late. They’ve been well and truly hypnotised.
    I’m sorry, but there’s no nice way to say this. If you fill your child’s mind with images of Satan and the horrors of hellfire, you’re a sick individual, and you are mentally ill.
    And the only reason you don’t know this is because you’ve been indulged for far too long by people and institutions that really ought to know better. The truth is your beliefs are infantile, your scriptures are lies, and your gods are illusions. And I can say that with all due respect, because no respect is actually due.
    Besides, anyone who has to demand respect automatically deserves ridicule. If you deserved respect you’d already have it. You’d be rolling around in it like a televangelist in other people’s money.
    No, what you deserve is mockery. But I’m a reasonable person and I want to make an effort, so I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll respect your beliefs for as long as I can keep a straight face while thinking about them, which should be about half a second, but beyond that I’m afraid I can’t promise anything.
    In the meantime I don’t believe that God exists, but if it turns out that I’m wrong about that,