2) With religions that espouse and emphasize proselytizing, the basic argument
reduces to “my imaginary friend is more powerful than your imaginary friend.”

3) Much death and killing (aka wars) involves religious values.

-lew

I HATE THAT!

And I think most Americans agree with us.

Unfortunately, there’s that segment of Christian America that sees one God, and translates that to one word, and one morality. One faith, for one salvation. When they speak of respect and tolerance, the words are empty. They think they’re pursuing something bigger–and for the other guy’s benefit. Why should they merely feed the hungry, when they can save his soul at the same time? When they see the soul as more important than the physical hunger?

You can feed a lot of the hungry, defend a lot of the meek, through government. So voting for people who think like you becomes a holy task, if you think like they do. You and me, we want to fight for humanity, and people sort out their own relationship with God. The people we’re opposed to politics want to fight for everyone’s salvation too. That’s something they think is bigger than humanity. The position makes them patronizing… they see us literally, the same way they see children. Too naive to know we’re wrong. If only we saw things their way, we’d understand. They’re Right, so they don’t have to listen to us.

I have no clue how to change their minds. I’m not sure if it can be done.