A tribal thing. Heaven help you if you venture outside the accepted tribal god think. All tribal thought is insulted by others who have tribal thoughts not ours.

Religion has long been accustomed to unearned automatic deference and respect for themselves in the marketplace of ideas. Part of that hegemony has been the ability to use the concept of blasphemy and other taboos and threats of withheld social reciprocity, to silence dissent or criticism of any kind.

In the past 100 years or so this grip on the popular imagination has decayed quite a bit though, and it continues to erode rapidly. There may be some temporary regression or delay in this process but I am very hopeful that it is all over but the shouting for Christian fundamentalism. Within the next century at the outside they will be a fringe element. They are already only 17% of self-identified Christianity.

Sometime after that, probably in a much longer time frame, I expect Christianity generally to fade to irrelevance.

Accept your atheism for what it is, and focus on other areas such as developing compassion and empathy.

Religion doesn't garner automatic respect from me any more. Nope.

A social fiction says that religion has a "special place" in our discourse, and must be "respected" even though it has no rational basis.

Hmm...just in the US, though.

Who says?

Because a larger ad campaign has been spent promoting fiction than reality…

It's important for people to treat others generally with respect and double important if they're respectful.

Treating someone with respect doesn't always mean treating their deeply held beliefs with respect though, basic diplomacy and striving for civility with those we disagree with goes a long way.

To me, a deity is nothing but fiction. When I see a post that refers to that absurdity I figuratively and literally roll my eyes.