Quote Originally Posted by birdgirl73
Fundamental religions of all types scare the liver outta me. Nothing is more terrifying than pious certitude behind a lofty, hypocritical exterior.
Precisely. But even moderates, in continuing to publish their "holy scriptures", end up promoting fundamentalism in the long run. Sure, it's nice that most believers cherry pick the good parts out of the scriptures and follow those, then ignore all the hateful crap, but they continue to publish the whole book and call it divine, which is just begging future readers to take the whole thing seriously. Moderate religious people, who don't take their scriptures seriously and are perfectly content to disregard anything in them they personally don't like, are setting the stage for fundamentalism among people who are more intellectually honest with their beliefs and do consider their holy scriptures to be truth.

It's even worse when the religious try to indoctrinate children into their belief systems. It is a form of child abuse to teach children who can't yet reason out the metaphysical arguments around God's existence that they must believe a certain faith and if they do not they will be shunned by their families and sent to burn for eternity after they're dead. I feel it is perfectly justified to stop parents from abusing their children with such belief systems. Sure, everybody has the right to believe whatever they want, but nobody has the right to psychologically abuse a child.

Religions are viruses of the mind that require a fresh batch of supple young minds to prey on every generation. Once we stop parents from indoctrinating their children into these irrational superstitions, the viruses will have a much harder time spreading themselves. Ever try to convince a post-pubescent person that Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy exist? They don't swallow it up unquestioningly like a four-year-old would.