OP's hilarious belligerence aside...
I've wondered myself whether it's legitimate to categorically lose respect for a person based on something they believe. After some deliberation, I've concluded I can. Not normally something I admit because it's hardly PC, but I'll highlight my reasoning starting with more extreme examples:
Who are you to judge people for their own personal beliefs?
Nice as it would be if we could all just get along, if someone tells me they hate black people, believes 9/11 was a good thing or thinks the Jews should all have been wiped out in the Holocaust, it doesn't mater if they're a powerless hick, I am still gonna call that person a piece of shit. There are some beliefs we don't tolerate and for good reason. No, it's not okay to believe we should practice the Aztec religion again. No it's not okay to be a neo-Nazi, or a religious extremist, or any kind of extremist whatsoever. None of these things are
illegal because ostensibly we're allowed to believe whatever we want in the eyes of the law. And obviously these are examples of repugnant and extreme ideologies, which I am not saying is true of present day mainstream religions. However, they highlight the point that really, yes you CAN judge a person for their beliefs. This idea that a person's culture or religion or philosophy is some sacred thing that must never be questioned
sounds like a good thing to say, but the moment you actually look at it, it falls right on its ass.
Now that's out of the way, here's how I react when someone tells me they're a practicing Christian / Jew / Muslim / anything where some guy stands on a pulpit and tells you exactly what you must believe. I nod, smile and decide never to engage this person in any kind of discussion that might even verge on philosophical. Because if you believe:
* That God is this guy who created everything, and
* That if you don't get down on your knees and beg his son who was nailed to a cross two milennia ago to save you, he will drop your eternal soul into a furnace and leave it there forever, but
* That he loves you, and
* That you were
born deserving it anyway because your most distant great grandparents disobeyed him and ate an apple, and
* That the entire Bible is the infalliable word of God rather than a work of man, and
* That to serve his will we must all go to a man-made institution with a long history of nothing but corruption and hypocrisy, and
* That God deliberately provides us no other evidence for any of this because believing something with no rational reason to is something he considers a virtue, and
* That questioning any of this is a sin too, and
* That they
need your money...
... then how the hell am I supposed to have an intelligent conversation with you?! I know it's an incredibly rude thing to say and usually I don't - I'm sure none of my Christian friends are aware of just how jaw-droppingly
stupid I think their beliefs are - but come
on, you should not get a special exemption to follow obvious scams just because you slap the title 'religion' onto it!
Does it mean you're not intelligent? - no, obviously not, plenty of very smart people are religious, but clearly this is a blind spot in your capacity for rational thought! So I apologise because this
will offend some people, but to me it's that simple!
But the real issue is not the belief itself. It's the effect the belief has on others. Now I know plenty of devout believers who see there's a problem with religion influencing state policy, and also that even the Bible actually advocates that
everyone must find their own way to God so the state should not interfere... but plenty do, including a great many policy-makers and loads of voters. And even for those who don't think theocracy is teh way to go, there are still things I take serious issue with. Such as your supposed right to brainwash your kids with this stuff. Deliberate indoctrination is
not okay, it's repulsive. I have witnessed families inculcate their children in the most jaw-droppingly manipulative ways. At the end of the day you can believe whatever you like, but don't take someone who has no life experience and trusts everything you say, then twist their emotions and their identity and their sense of community around what
you want them to think! Again, I realise not every Christian does this, but
it's the norm. And every time I have to go to a baptism or I see little kids handing out Bibles on the street with their parents, it makes me want to kick a priest in the balls! While we're on the topic, knocking on people's doors to push your religion on them, or expecting them to follow your personal rituals such as saying grace, is extremely disrespectful! To anyone who's pissed off at anything I've said, well it goes double for me!
Now that I have that off my chest...
... I'm a lot more tolerant towards a person's beliefs when they don't want to affect other people with them. For instance, I know a bunch of mainstream Buddhists and you know what? That's great! I think turning Buddhism into a religion misses the point, but hey, that's just my opinion and it's no reason we can't get along. Similarly, I've debated with plenty of mystics before who are open to challenges and will challenge me right back, where it's all fair game. I may come right out and say something they believe is silly, but in the end I can respect that they arrived at their conclusions via independent thought rather than blindly swallowing everything some holy man told them. Hell, the same applies for materialists. Had plenty of debates with them too.
Oh and if you don't want to talk about it I can respect that too, there are times I don't feel inspired to rush to the defense of my own beliefs either.
Also, I've made a point thus far of mentioning
mainstream religions, but now and then I'll meet a really cool Muslim philosopher who takes things deeper and makes something both unintrusive and beneficial to himself out of it... or I'll talk to, say, a Christian Universalist, who does not believe the Bible is the word of God OR that he's sending anybody to Hell. Awesome! What interesting people! What colourful interpretations! What clear examples of independent thought! This is where diversity shines!
Okay I've said my bit, you can start throwing rocks now.
