And of course people will be susceptible to lies peddled by snake-oil salesmen if bullshit a TV/podcast/mega-church evangelist just made up and said God told him is treated with equal validity to facts about the world we live in and the reality of people’s lives in it. Again, woo in, woo out.
You can have a society where individuals’ individual and personal views on the supernatural and the origin of the universe etc are wholly respected as their genuinely held personal beliefs, but running countries based on treating them as anything more than that is medieval at best.
It’s not disrespectful to, say, reject prayer as a basis for policy or government (in)action. Pray that the O-rings on the rocket boosters hold, by all means. That’s personal and harms nobody. But accept that checking them is 100% more likely to avoid a catastrophic explosion on lift-off.
On the contrary, I’d argue it is way more disrespectful to a purportedly all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving deity to believe that he requires us to plead with him before doing anything, or that he allows death and terrible suffering because we didn’t plead or praise him hard enough.
What a vain, weak, petty god that describes.
It’s far more respectful to say belief in prayer, or other religious or supernatural beliefs are yours and yours alone. They are in a domain that belongs solely to you. They are none of the state’s (anyone else’s) business. They are outside of the domain of public and political discourse and action.
*or anyone else’s
It is the ultimate mark of respect for the state and society to say that your religious belief is absolutely none of its business, other than protecting you from persecution, discrimination or interference for believing it.
... which is why, in my view, freedom *of* religion should automatically confer freedom *from* religion. If I can choose which one to follow, will all the government protections, I should be able to choose to follow none, and have none imposed on me, whether directly or by politicians' beliefs.
Exactly so!
Oh no so when Dubya said God told him to invade Iraq 🇮🇶 he may have had a bad signal? 😑