Quote Originally Posted by Iyaman
- The right to vote shouldn't have anything to do with religion. People are supposed to be treated equally no matter how different they are in any way.

- There is theism and atheism. religion has to do with theism, which is a totaly different thing to atheism. Atheism isn't a belief system. I don't believe, I know.

- Where else would they put atheism anyway. It has to do with contrasting religion, so thats the closest thing it's assosiated with.

- Sorry if i disrespected you
No problem, and sorry if I disrespected you as well.

It is sad that a Federal Court could let someone off for cannabis possession because he is Rasta, but would not do the same for an atheist. I'll give you that. But given that sad reality, if religious freedom is something that has been respected in Courts I would be happy to use what I believe for my benefit (namely that the ancient Hebrews and even Christ himself used and/or approved of the use of cannabis in spiritual ways). I would not see that as an abuse of religion. If the Court wants to give me a pass on some unjust laws because of my faith... I'll let them give me the pass. I don't think it is right that an atheist could not get the same pass, but I would still take the pass if they wanted to give it to me.

Plus, if many Courts were persuaded to allow personal use or possession for religious purposes on a large scale (like State Courts as well as Federal Courts) then eventually the public and the system would start to see that cannabis users are not harmful. It could be the start to total decriminalization, since Courts haven't just outright allowed it. Also, once religious exceptions were the rule of law an atheist like yourself could then argue that the law is discriminating against him because of his spiritual beliefs (or the lack thereof depending on how you define atheism). It could work...

You say you "know", and you don't just "believe." Yeah, I mean no disrespect to you and all, but a theist could say he "knows" too. We could argue all day about whether or not there is a God and how sure we each are. There is no point really. You have your experiences, I have mine. We both believe what we believe. Neither of us actually knows for sure 100%. You might be 99.9999999999999% sure there is no God... but there is only one way to know with absolute 100% certainty what happens after you die.