I'm so tired of religion being treated like a special set of beliefs

[byronius]

40. A bit of wisdom once taught to me --

— ‘be the vegan you would have wanted to meet before you became a vegan’.

I’m not a staunch atheist, and I’ve never been religious — but I try not to judge. Nonetheless— I’ve met the worst of religious authoritarians. The mullahs in downtown Dhahran who grabbed my 12 year old friend and dragged him into a building to roughly shave his head were the same to me as the various violent religious Americans I’ve met — absolutely absolutist, relatively insane, and cruel. The portion of the brain responsible for religious feelings has great biochemical power, and I feel badly for those who cannot escape or defray its complete hijacking of reason.

I’ve met perfectly lovely religious people — my grandmother for one. But I’m too familiar with the other side of the coin. Respect, certainly — always, until the shearing knives come out.