RESPECTING BELIEF especially RELIGIOUS OR SPIRITUAL BELIEF
The Church follows commonsense in saying that a belief should be firmly opposed
if it is wrong. It says it needs to be shown false.
To respect beliefs that do no good at all - such as original sin - would be very
wrong. Catholics might say that original sin is good for it gives us a reason to
get their babies baptised. But that is getting good out of the doctrine. It does
not mean the doctrine is good. You can get good out of anything bad. And who
says a baptism of a baby is good?
To respect belief is to respect the idea that we should be dogmatic about things
that don’t matter for they don’t do us any good. Beliefs that do harm deserve
less respect.
If people claim the right to believe what they want, then they must respect your
right to believe that you should tell them if you think that belief is wrong.
Religious believers claim to have the right to indoctrinate you if they get you
as a child, they claim the right to put up shrines and crosses and churches to
promote their faith and to shove their religious leaflets through your door.
They claim the right to keep a religious influence in the government. Surely
then you have the right to point out errors in their faith.
If you have the wrong beliefs, that is bad. A doctor is a bad doctor no matter
if he has the purest and kindest heart in the world if his beliefs about what he
can do are wrong. The believers accuse those who disagree with them of being bad
persons whether they realise it or not. Therefore you have the right to expect
the believers to listen to your criticisms. You have the right to ask them.
If you try to show a Catholics why their faith is wrong, some people will say
you are doing them a disservice and removing a source of comfort from them. But
if you say nothing you deprive them of the opportunity and the choice to be free
and to find something new and better.
A Catholic who does not listen to the reasons why his religion is wrong is not
respecting you. This person is not confident that his religion is what it claims
to be and it claims to be the truth. Truth should be able to withstand all
questions and attacks. People who say, “Our religion is the religion of the
truth”, should welcome questions and challenges from doubters and unbelievers.
The person that is truly sincere will seek challenges. If believers are
insincere then they have no faith for us to respect.
Sincere belief welcomes criticism. It is not afraid. It seeks criticism and
criticises itself in order to purify itself.
Praising the sincerity does not mean praising the error or overlooking it. If
you really believe the person sincere you will point the error out. Go and do
it.
Believers who are confident will not mind if somebody criticises their beliefs
for it gives them the chance to learn and understand their faith better. They
will appreciate it that somebody is interested in the faith.
Most people who forbid you to say anything critical about their religious
beliefs will accuse you of disrespecting their beliefs if you do. Even if they
claim to be religious liberals, they are fundamentalists. It is fundamentalism
to keep religious critics quiet or to refuse to listen to them.
You can point out faults but this is not disrespect as long as it is
constructive and intended to help.
The Catholics protest when their belief are criticised and they allege that the
critics are not respecting Catholic beliefs. But beliefs are not entitled to
respect.
Ideas and beliefs do not deserve respect unless they are wholesome and very
likely true. It is people that deserve respect. Deserve means be entitled to or
earn or merit.
People need to be rescued from false hope. Do we stand there silent and let
women spend a fortune on useless anti-ageing creams when we know these creams
cannot work? We mightn't do it believing that we are destroying those women’s
hopes. But is that not showing a lack of faith in those women to cope? Religion
is a worse source of false hope. Even St Therese of Lisieux spoke of the times
she was in the grip of despairing unbelief. And Mother Teresa agonised in a
similar way.
Respecting a belief does not mean you will decline to work against the belief.
Respecting others does not mean you will not try to get the job they are after.
The Catholic with all the harmful beliefs he or she adheres to, is not
respecting others by supporting Catholic beliefs.
Religious belief is unnecessary. Therefore it is undeserving of respect.
Don’t ask any critic to be silent or ask that your belief be respected until you
prove that it really is a belief. Show that you are not mistaking a feeling that
something is true for a belief. Show that you have a real belief and not a piece
of self-deception.
To claim that all religions however contradictory are all as good as one another
and equally true is just a cop-out and the claim is the rant of cowards. In the
name of tolerance, the claim advocates intolerance towards those who reject this
silly idea of “If you believe it, then it is true.” It accuses them of bigotry
and causing division. But one religion disagrees with and divides itself from
others and pretending that all religions are the same and as good insults
religion and pretends that the divisions do not exist. Believing your baby will
be nourished by poison won’t make the poison good for the baby.
The Church says that God inspired the gospels so that the life of the perfect
man, Jesus, might be recorded for us to learn from it. Jesus in the gospels was
iconoclastic - he criticised the beliefs of the Pharisees openly and even called
them bastards and hypocrites to their faces and told parables that went out of
their way to criticise them. He told the parable of the Pharisee and the
tax-collector when he could have said proud man instead of Pharisee. The
knowledgeable Christian will consider Jesus’s behaviour as model behaviour. If
Christians believe they should be iconoclasts then they cannot complain if
people are iconoclastic in relation to Christian beliefs.
Catholics have to be repulsed by sin and what they see as error - their ditty is
to love sinners and loathe sin. Catholics have to be offended by liberals and
secularists. These advocate sin by watering down the faith or opposing it. Even
if they are sincere they are still bad. The bad they do still has to be hated as
much as ever. In fact, their bad is worse than sin for at least with sin the
sinner knows he or she is bad. So it has to be hated far more than sin. Hating
the sin is supposed to be about hating the evil rather than judging or blaming
the sinner which illustrates the point. The Catholic faith must lead to
intolerance.
Even if you do have to respect beliefs, you should not be asked to respect the
harm that such beliefs do.
YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO YOUR OPINION
Those who tell you when you state a fact that it is your opinion are being
judgemental and intolerant of you. It is not up to them to accuse you of stating
an opinion when you are stating a fact. They are undermining your knowledge by
saying it is an opinion rather than knowledge.
The modern adage, "You have a right to your opinion/belief" is used by those who
think they should think or believe whatever they WANT rather than think or
believe whatever seems TRUE. It's a revolting misuse based on the wish to become
immune to rational argument or persuasion. The only reason you have a right to
your belief or opinion is that you use belief and opinion to find the truth or
to improve your knowledge and accuracy. To say you have the right to believe or
think what you want is ridiculous. It is not about what you want and you have no
right to deceive people that it is. Grow up!
The person who tries to believe what he wants without regard to what is true is
being intolerant of the fact that belief is based on evidence. He is not being
fair or honest in this. He is not being supportive or tolerant towards those who
want to base belief on good reasons. He will fear and tend to be bigoted towards
those who endanger the facade he has created.
People say they have a right to their beliefs and opinions. That is actually a
half truth. The correct thing is to say you have a right to your beliefs and
opinions as long as you see them as helps on the journey to truth. If you say
you have a right to your beliefs and opinions without any concern for truth then
you are not being fair. Fairness is based on what is true. The person who sees
the truth and calls it a lie is being unfair.