Belief and Delusion - quote from an article over at Salon

Read this article over the weekend at Salon, and it really crystallized a lot of what I've thought about anti-theism. Particularly this paragraph.

Let me be clear: I’m not denying anyone’s (constitutionally protected) right to profess or practice his or her religion. (Nor am I denying the magnificent literary, artistic, and musical heritage religion has inspired.) What I am contesting is the hushed silence with which many nonbelievers respond to the faith-tainted eructations of the religious, who enjoy undeserved exemptions from ground rules we observe for all other kinds of discourse. If someone were to claim he was Napoleon Bonaparte, we would either assume he was joking, or, if not, dial the insane asylum and request urgent outpatient service. What we would not do is simply nod in assent and move on to another topic. “This is just my religion and I believe in it!” is a frequently stated position, but it offers no valid argument of any kind, and we should give no one a pass on the basis of it.

I bolded the key phrase. Consider the implications of that statement - what sort of place employ someone who claimed seriously to be Napoleon? What sort of public office could someone claiming to be Napoleon be elected to? In a society that treated belief in God as a delusion on the same level as believing one is Napoleon how could any free exercise of religion be possible? "Of course you are free to beleive what you like; and then we'll cart you off to the asylum."

Of course there is no atheist pope and no reason to believe that the views of Jeffrey Tayler are reflective of anybody at DU.

Bryant