via Should I Respect Your Beliefs? | Courtney Heard

There is not a religion on earth I respect and there’s one simple reason: I value the truth. Centering your life and your core values around something for which there is no evidence is dangerous. Once you accept one idea on faith, you’ve set your standard of evidence extremely low. You can then be led to believe other ideas for which there exists no empirical, demonstrable evidence. As such, these beliefs make it easy to inspire murder, child abuse, science and medicine denial, wars, genocides, discrimination and the stripping of human rights. Stubborn belief in that which cannot be proven is the very last thing that deserves respect.

I reserve my respect for that which does deserve it. That which upholds the value of human life; that which values individual rights. I save my respect for people, for this planet, and all the creatures on it, including you, but I will not give it to your unfounded beliefs. The very fact that you feel the need to demand respect for your beliefs from strangers on the internet is perhaps a sign they are not worthy of respect at all.