As long as it stays a personal thing, kept private.

Who or what you see as being a guiding light in your life is up to you. Not open to discussion.

Could be the benevolent purple 10 tentacled octopus king from Jupiter, for all it is someone else's business.

As soon as it becomes organised, with some select people claiming to be 'in charge', it morphs into something quite different.

Some non-profit charitable religious groups are fine, as long as they focus on their charity work.
Few do.

Just don’t try to dictate the lives of others by your beliefs.

While you have the right to your faith or belief or religion, I can say there is a lot wrong with having those things. I just can't force you to not have them.

Their whole platform is based on evangelical belief in God. They have tied their fate to the fate of organized Conservative Christianity in the US.

THAT IS A GOOD THING.

What you do in your homes or clubs is no skin off my teeth.

Just don't mandate that we all have to put our lost teeth under our pillows.

There are humanists, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, ethical culturalists, Buddhists, etc.

There are virulent anti-religionists, yes.

And there are more discriminating varieties. For example, religion, as a comparison to their beliefs, generally is not offensive. It doesn't seek to destroy their belief system and communities. But OTOH, there are certain sects of religion, say Christian denominationalists who want to supplant a religiously neutral government(s) with their own narrow interpretation of the Bible notwithstanding others' beliefs and choices. Most non-theists would oppose their efforts to gain power over them and the rest of the country.

As a humanist, I have attended a myriad of religious ceremonies of all religions and have not felt uncomfortable. Nobody's made me feel compelled to convert. I even faced the wrath of my immediate family when my brother married in a Muslim ceremony. I don't challenge anyone's pursuit of THEIR truth, not mine.

can't possibly be true.


The second is the character of many of the leaders. At least twice a week, D.U. has posts about adultery, misuse of funds, buggery, child abuse and on and on, committed by pastors, priests, rabbis youth pastors and such. In past, these were hidden from the fuckd - sorry, flock. Priests were transferred, parishioners were discouraged from airing about abuse.

It will only get worse for organized religion.

I don't recall ever believing in that particular fairy tale. I do have vague memories of internal debate about whether Santa Claus was real when I was very young, and if I ever accepted religion it would likely be during that period of childhood gullibility. I have unambiguous memories of rejecting religion around eight or nine years old. My family was super religious. When I was twenty-ish my parents quit the SBC because it was "too liberal." They meant religiously liberal, not socially liberal.

I left home and began couch surfing at various friends' houses at fifteen. My family's religiosity was part of the reason.

experiment to demonstrate how a cult could become a mainstream religion.

So, believe what you will, but try and tell me some dude called Jesus couldn't have just known the faith healer con and a few other tricks. You have to be a little less certain you haven't been had.