Why do we still have religious rights today?
I understand the purpose for the most part, to prevent discrimination against people because of their religion. But this has been turned into an excuse for religious people to discriminate against others for religious reasons.
Here's my problem with religious rights. Rights are generally based on inherent attributes like colour, race/ethnicity, gender, species etc. These are inherent attributes. Disability is another inherent attribute even though not all disabled people are born that way, but anybody who wan't born that way and IS disabled sure as hell didn't choose to be. Well, with the exception of a very small handful of people with serious, yet un-diagnosed psychological issues.
And that's the crux of my argument. Religious belief is a choice, not an inherent attribute. It's no different than being politically partisan. Nobody is born a muslim or a christian. Just like nobody is born on one side of the political spectrum or another. They are choices we make in life.
Yet for some f*cked up reason, we permit discrimination against people, based on their inherent attributes, for religious reasons which are not inherent attributes.
So what the hell is going on? Why are religious beliefs being given precedence over inherent attributes that are supposedly protected by basic human and civil rights?
When did it become acceptable to once again discriminate against people for the way they were born based on one's personal belief in some non-existent entity in the sky?
It's way past time to prune religious freedoms until the religious zealots, and the morons who are running the shit show right now, get the f*cking clue that freedom of religion means the exact same thing as freedom FROM religion. That means ALL religions.
I'm tempted to say we should just do away with freedom of religion altogether until the zealots get a firm understanding that their right to believe their nonsense does NOT include the right to force their nonsense onto anyone and everyone else. And if it's fair game to discriminate against people for their political beliefs, then it should be fair game to discriminate against people for their religious beliefs, n'est ce pas?
And if we're going to allow shit like discriminating against disabled people purely because of personal beliefs, then you can't really slam some idiot with the law who refuses to serve Black and Mexicans because they "believe" that all Blacks and Mexicans are thieves. You can't really slam a business owner who refuses to serve muslims because they "believe" that all muslims are terrorists. Or a business owner who refuses to serve White people because they "believe" that all Whites are White supremacists.
When you open the door to allow discrimination based on personal beliefs, then you're opening the door for the "smart" mental midgets who will use their own personal beliefs to legally discriminate against one group or another based entirely on what that person "believes" about said group of people.
Let's think about it for a moment. We have basically said it's okay to use religious beliefs to discriminate against someone for the way they were born. Seriously? That's "progress"?
I understand the purpose for the most part, to prevent discrimination against people because of their religion. But this has been turned into an excuse for religious people to discriminate against others for religious reasons.
Here's my problem with religious rights. Rights are generally based on inherent attributes like colour, race/ethnicity, gender, species etc. These are inherent attributes. Disability is another inherent attribute even though not all disabled people are born that way, but anybody who wan't born that way and IS disabled sure as hell didn't choose to be. Well, with the exception of a very small handful of people with serious, yet un-diagnosed psychological issues.
And that's the crux of my argument. Religious belief is a choice, not an inherent attribute. It's no different than being politically partisan. Nobody is born a muslim or a christian. Just like nobody is born on one side of the political spectrum or another. They are choices we make in life.
Yet for some f*cked up reason, we permit discrimination against people, based on their inherent attributes, for religious reasons which are not inherent attributes.
So what the hell is going on? Why are religious beliefs being given precedence over inherent attributes that are supposedly protected by basic human and civil rights?
When did it become acceptable to once again discriminate against people for the way they were born based on one's personal belief in some non-existent entity in the sky?
It's way past time to prune religious freedoms until the religious zealots, and the morons who are running the shit show right now, get the f*cking clue that freedom of religion means the exact same thing as freedom FROM religion. That means ALL religions.
I'm tempted to say we should just do away with freedom of religion altogether until the zealots get a firm understanding that their right to believe their nonsense does NOT include the right to force their nonsense onto anyone and everyone else. And if it's fair game to discriminate against people for their political beliefs, then it should be fair game to discriminate against people for their religious beliefs, n'est ce pas?
And if we're going to allow shit like discriminating against disabled people purely because of personal beliefs, then you can't really slam some idiot with the law who refuses to serve Black and Mexicans because they "believe" that all Blacks and Mexicans are thieves. You can't really slam a business owner who refuses to serve muslims because they "believe" that all muslims are terrorists. Or a business owner who refuses to serve White people because they "believe" that all Whites are White supremacists.
When you open the door to allow discrimination based on personal beliefs, then you're opening the door for the "smart" mental midgets who will use their own personal beliefs to legally discriminate against one group or another based entirely on what that person "believes" about said group of people.
Let's think about it for a moment. We have basically said it's okay to use religious beliefs to discriminate against someone for the way they were born. Seriously? That's "progress"?