Should religion really be protected and revered or is it time for change?

Dear Nations of this World

SHOULD RELIGION REALLY BE PROTECTED AND REVERED OR IS IT TIME FOR CHANGE?

There is something very pressing that I must share with you concerning the notion that religion is something that needs to be protected and revered. This is a notion that I myself had as a religious person, but since my loss of faith, I had experienced a shift in worldview and values, and have seen and experienced much of what religion is doing to people. Things that have more of a negative impact on societies than a positive one. It makes my heart sink when I see the hate religious critics get and how they are viewed as despicable, unworthy and unacceptable. It’s so unfair that Atheists are viewed as evil and Theists as saints. Do these haters of the opposition know anything about them, their journey, their knowledge other than what biased teachings taught them?

Losing my faith was the most crushing experience I have ever had in my life. You could relate it to the death of a loved one and the grieving process is very much a part of it. It is the hardest thing I have had to deal with. Not only losing my faith in my religion or God, but mostly the aftermath of such a devastating event in my life. The aftershock damage mostly came because of a shift in worldview that opposed the views of friends and family. It is the most damning thing to realize that you have been duped, but what makes it worse, is when no one believes what you tell them about your journey and the knowledge that lead to your conclusions concerning your rejection of your loved ones’ religion or their God and they immediately discredit all facts and rational thought. The fact that you even tried to make them understand your new views, puts you at risk of being disrespected, devalued and ostracized, because they view you as being the problem.

If you are lucky enough not to be ostracized openly, it really would not matter a great deal, because the wedge between you and the religious people you love would have grown so large that there is barely any common ground to fall back on. I mean, if you await the end of the world and can only see the world getting worse before being saved by a mythical creature that will only save believers or believe that a mythical creature will protect you and cure you and sort out the problems of this world (if it is his will) or that being gay is sinful and evolution is only a manmade theory, then we will be worlds apart in what we believe and have less of a common ground. I find it extremely offensive that so very few religious people could give credit to the doctors or surgeons who saved their lives, but gives all the credit to the invisible man. I'll give it to them, that one cannot heal without your body doing the hard work for you, but really, to see your body's healing power as God doing it for you, is like saying you pooped or urinated, because it was God's will.

There are a few things that really gets me down, that many religious or those guardians of religions do not see. One is the division it creates in our societies. If you are not from a certain religion, you could not possibly be a good person, or be trusted, or be included, because you believe differently to them. You are looked down upon if you are living a secular life, free of religious customs and practices. When you declare yourself an Atheist, which is no belief, but only a lack of belief in the gods of this world, then you are immediately discredited, disrespected and made inferior. You could even be classified as the enemy or pawn of Satan. It just depends on your amount of open critique on religion.

You will be tolerated if you just keep your mouth shut about the issues you believe exists within religions groups and you could be respected by them if you only have good things to say about them. If you are religious, but from a different religion, then you are not serving the true god, or you have the wrong beliefs or customs. You are never just a human, with the same or similar needs and desires, never on equal grounds, but always in need of feeling somewhat superior. The superiority that your religion makes you believe you have over the rest of humanity.

Then there are the injustices that I feel gets protected by those protecting religions. In my eyes, they are protecting unethical practices. Like women oppression and inequality, indoctrination, mutilation, hypocrisy, deception, homophobia, distrust in education and the educated, discouragement or suppression for the need to have wealth and the limiting of people's freedom to act or make choices based on their individual dreams and desires. They protect the practice of protecting a so called "all loving" God on unethical practices, like killing entire nations, enslaving people, abusing children, discriminating against outsiders, viewing disability as demonic and child sacrifice as noble, the list can go on. When you are standing up for a God like that, what else would you condone?

Another shame is the stand-aside-and-let-the-invisible-man-take-control mentality. Like me telling a religious family member that children are getting sexually harassed and assaulted in meetings with their bishops at her church. Her reaction to it was, "I have no right to judge these men. They will have to account for their own sins in front of God one day". I just have a question regarding this mentality. If politicians were all religious and believed like this family member does, who will protect us against criminals? God has not done anything to stop criminals from raping or killing or stealing up to this point. Should we just let everyone do what they please and wait for judgment day, if there ever will be such a day, or should we dare to judge those who act out against the wellbeing of humanity?

I do believe if no one will stand up against and judge religion and the injustice going on inside the walls of churches and religious teachings, then we are all guilty of the stand-aside-and-let-the-invisible-man-take-control mentality. We will be guilty of allowing people to continue teaching and believing and protecting unjust and unethical ideas.

We live in a world that is better than that. We stand up against injustice. We believe in humanity, but most of all, we value our rights and our freedom. Protecting the freedom of religion is not protecting the freedom and rights of individuals, since many inside religion was born and indoctrinated to believe those things. They were never free to choose their religion from the start and leaving religion at a later stage bring so much heartache from a social perspective, because it isolates the unbeliever.

There should be policies in place for what is allowed and not allowed to be practiced and taught within religions to protect people from indoctrination, separation and bias. To protect people from human rights violations. To promote safety, equality, fairness, transparency and truth. To promote values that are not conflicting to practices of a vicious God. To protect people from any kind of abuse and to save people from acting out of fear. Stricter laws should be put in place for religions to practice their beliefs. Practices that would not interfere with social security and pose a threat to mental health of believers. That would not interfere with people's freedom of choice, that will not discriminate and that would encourage an acceptance of people's uniqueness and authenticity.

Religions should be scrutinized and if needed, totally replaced with modern, more humane and inclusive organizations that will instil love, service and charity from the goodness of one’s heart and not from a place of fear or a brownie point reward. From a point of capable and willing contribution and not out of duty to some mythical creature.