We all like to talk about religious freedom and the guarantees that the constitution gives Americans in this respect. The truth is that for most, freedom of religion is not a reality and is in all truthfulness nothing more than an illusion.
If one really thinks about the concept of religious freedom and how religion is really inherited rather than chosen, it becomes obvious that individuals rarely have freedom in the matter. If your parents are muslim, you are raised in the religion of islam. If you have christian parents christianity is the religion that you are taught. Same goes for mormons, hindus and all other religious traditions. Essentially, your religion is determined, more often than not, by someone else and is indoctrinated from birth rather than a matter of free choice. That is the illusion of religious freedom.
This lack of choice by children and culturally accepted indoctrination and brainwashing by parents into superstitious belief systems really represents the antithesis of religious freedom. If we were all truly free to choose our religions, this indoctrination would not be the norm and people would be allowed to choose their religion once they were old enough and educated enough to understand the differences between all religious doctrines. If we really valued freedom of religion, we would require that all children be taught comparative religion starting at an appropriate age and allow them to select the religion that they felt drawn to or even choose no religion if that was their choice. But the truth of the matter is that the religious know that if they were not allowed to brainwash kids into their superstitious systems of nonsense from birth most would not choose any religious system because they would see how truly nonsensical they are in comparison to what science and reality teaches us.
I know that it’s a hard sell to tell people that parents should not be allowed to indoctrinate children into their religions and should give children the right to choose on their own once they are fully grown and able to make an informed decision. We must begin to accept that children are not possessions that we can do with as we like. We must also realize that raising children into religions that teach hatred of others is tantamount to child abuse of the worst kind. Teaching children that they must follow blind faith or risk eternal damnation and hell fire IS child abuse. Teaching children that people who don’t follow your personal religious beliefs are evil and deserve to be punished eternally is reprehensible. Telling kids that they are special because of some imaginary sky daddy and all others who don’t believe the same are somehow less valuable as human beings teaches kids that it’s OK to kill, imprison, torture or whatever is necessary if they are called to do so. It’s simply evil and wrong in the worst possible way and should be stopped.
The religious know that freedom of religion is an illusion and that’s the way they want to keep it. Our last election cycle was riddled with hateful rhetoric from right wing politicians who want to create a theocracy where freedom of religion means freedom to be a christian, in a christian nation where all others are considered second class citizens. The right is constantly fighting to keep the privileges that they have usurped in our society and gain even more through legislation that would allow them the right to discriminate and even deny basic human rights both on the job and in society to anyone who believes other than the way they do.
There is one more aspect of our society that makes religious freedom nothing more than an illusion and that is the laws in which we live under. Let’s face it if we really valued freedom of religion, we wouldn't even be arguing the same sex marriage debate and the war on women would not even exist. The fact that we have laws on the books that support christian bullshit and deny equal rights and healthcare choices based on nothing more than one groups’ superstitious nonsense is more than enough evidence that freedom of religion simply does not exist at this moment. The truth is that we, as a society, have a long way to go until real freedom of and freedom from religion becomes a reality. Until that time, I guess we’ll just have to keep fighting to get to the point where that freedom is a reality.
Freedom of religion is an individual freedom not the right to force your bullshit on everyone else around you. If you want to believe in some imaginary sky-daddy, refuse medical care, not use birth control, not participate in same sex marriage or not do anything because of your religious beliefs, that is your right and your right alone. Where your religious freedom ends is where other people’s rights begin. Religious freedom ceases to exist the moment that create laws based upon one groups religious beliefs that deny equal rights to others who do not follow the same beliefs. That is what we live under right now and that is exactly why freedom of religion is nothing more than an illusion. Yes, we are free to believe what we want, but if those beliefs don’t agree with what the christian wants, then you are out of luck.
Religious freedom will not exist until the day comes when religion is totally out of the legislative process and children are allowed to mature before religion is presented to them. As long as we brainwash kids, there can be no religious freedom. As long as we continue to discuss things like gay marriage and birth control, like it should even be an option to deny rights to people because someone’s religion says that we should, religious freedom will be nothing more than a phrase that people throw around without knowing what that freedom really means. Until that time come, religious freedom remains an illusion.
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