Thought Provoking Article about the Critiques of Religion

"Faced with this uncomfortable but persistently deadly reality, what should we and our politicians (and pundits) do?  For starters, we need to cease granting religion – and not just Islam – an exemption from criticism.  If we do not believe the fables foisted on us (without evidence) by the faithful, we need to say so, day in and day out, in mixed company, and especially in front of children (to thwart their later indoctrination).  We must stop according religion unconditional respect, stop deferring to men (and mostly they are men) who happen to preface their names with the titles of reverend or rabbi or imam, and de-sanctify the sacred, in word and deed.

Laughable absurdities – be they virgin births, parting seas, spontaneously burning bushes – deserve not oblique pardons (“We don’t have to take everything in the Bible literally”), but outspoken ridicule; courses in “religious studies” in campuses across the country might better be referred to as “lessons in harmful superstition, dangerous delusion, and volitional insanity.”

Sorry, hashtag activism – even the #WeAreAllCharlieHebdo campaign underway on Twitter – won’t do.  

To avert more deaths, we have to stand up in real — and sometimes risky — ways to noxious ideologies masquerading as salvific faiths.  Pundits need to overcome their fear of being labeled “politically incorrect” and speak their minds.  Politicians must come clean with their electorates and state, simply, “With Islam, we have a problem.”  Better still, “We have a problem with religion.  Let’s figure out how we are going to deal with it.”

Jeffrey Taylor Salon Magazine