Inhuman Swill

"You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. If you are not informed on the subject, then your opinion counts for nothing." - Harlan Ellison

Or, to paraphrase Dilbert: Ignorance is not a point of view.

Two thoughts that are always useful to have in the back of your mind.

yes, but do you respect my authoritai?

I don't have any choice!

Do you respect someone's right to have an opinion you don't respect?

Absolutely!

Yes, but you fully support my sasquatch reapportionment policy, via a system of internment factories where bigfeet are put to work sewing clothing for big and tall men's clothing shops, right? Have to keep the hairy buggers in line, don't you know? It's the sane choice. Pip pip.

Stiff upper lip and all that, jolly smashing, what ho!

I feel the same way about religion. I respect people's right to have any religion they chose, but I decline to say I respect the religion itself. "Live and let live" doesn't mean we actually have to like and respect each other; we just shouldn't hurt each other.

Also I can respect someone else's religion as much as I can accept any ol' random thing someone else thinks that is not what I think (that is to say, often not much) but I'm so sick and tired of religion deserving this extra-fuzzy layer of protection and respect.

Of course you don't. The whole idea is just silly. Then you'd have to respect people's opinions that the Earth is flat, that it's okay to blow up children in the name of God, or that JFK's head is still alive in the catacombs below the Pentagon (well, that last one, maybe ).

It's a miswording of another cliche: "live and let live." The idea is not to judge a person's trustworthiness, dependability, intelligence or problem-solving ability by the amount of outrageous crap someone's managed to convince them of. Or whether they take the idea of faith seriously.

Otherwise, you're guilty of one of the most notorious logical fallacies: "People who don't agree with me are stupid."