User:Human/respect

One of the difficult things when discussing respect across religious (and non-religious) boundaries is that people with different perspectives will tend to place the "boundary" of what they consider respect in different places.

There are certainly religious people, generally known as fundamentalists, who consider any limitation not only on their own practices, but on their right to impose their beliefs on others, via law and government, to be a violation of "respect" for their religious beliefs.

There is also a strong tendency among the non-religious, especially strongly self-identified atheists, to view almost any religious activity that is not kept private as an infringement of respect for their rights.

In the vast middle ground, where most people live, the boundaries are seen to be in many different places in between. Luckily, in many places in the worls today, these "moderates" pretty much run the show. They are the ones who come up with the compromises that most reasonable people closer to the extremes can (hopefully) grudgingly accept.

As an atheist, I slowly got over my offense at being wished a "Merry Christmas" by strangers. It does not even bother me that my "tax dollars" pay for printing various local church activity announcements in the erratic town mailer. I know that if I bothered to submit the time and dates of local "goat worshipping festivals", they'd print them, too.

However, there is a difference in tone between my (and fellow non-believers) pushing for a carefully maintained wall between government and religion, for a secular society where all are free to worship (or not) as they choose, in private and in public, and what I see on the extremist religious fringe - a fringe that in the USA outnumbers the atheists substantially, and that has for years commanded political power beyond their numbers. They do not "grudgingly accept" a secular society - their very aim is to eliminate such a concept and see some version of their religious law imposed upon us all.

To echo Hojimachong's phrase, we can only hope that this "generation of hate", these "culture of hate"mongers, are on their way out in terms of influence. Perhaps then we can get back to sanely and moderately discussing solutions to actual problems our societies face.

(Note: this is copyright, not GFDL, and in user space accordingly)