Atheists are often criticized for criticizing religion and for even mocking religion at times. This is seen as being mean toward religious believers. Most atheists I know tend to be very nice people. We aren’t mean toward religious believers at all; we are mean toward religions. There is a big difference between the two.
Being mean toward people is rarely acceptable. Mocking an idea that one finds ridiculous, on the other hand, is perfectly acceptable. Religions are not people. You can’t hurt Christianity’s feelings. Christianity doesn’t even pay taxes. Christians however are people and they should be respected as people.
The problem is that Christians often incorrectly believe that any criticism or mockery of their religion is a criticism or mockery of them. It isn’t! Atheists within the greater community of reason continue to hold to the view that all ideas should be subjected to skepticism, criticism, and even mockery if the idea is particularly ridiculous. We don’t give religious ideas (i.e. beliefs) a pass from that.
Blasphemy is a victimless crime. Religions aren’t people and can’t be victims of blasphemy. Religious believers can be victims. However, more times than not, religious believers tend to be the ones who victimize others… often times they even victimize religious believers of a different religion or of people in their own religion who they have some difference with.
So if religions aren’t people, what are they? More often than not, religions are corporations. They have a mission to make money and avoid paying their fair share of taxes. They even market a product like most corporations. In this case their products are God, salvation from sin, eternal paradise, etc. Interestingly enough, those products aren’t real. Religions aren’t just corporations; they are corrupt corporations running multi-nation scams.
Happy Blasphemy Day!
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