I have been accused
numerous times of mocking religious faith on social media. In fact many Kenyan
Christians are furious at what they call "intolerance" on the part of
atheists like me who are critical of religion, religious beliefs, and theism.
These Christians insist that we are being intolerant and rather than
criticizing or mocking religion, we should become more tolerant of religion.
And surprise, there are atheists who are of a similar opinion too. I have been
called a militant atheist, and some have even asked me why I ‘hate god’ so
much. This sounds at first like a reasonable argument, but if you are to look
at the definition of the word tolerance, you may not agree with those who call
me tolerant.
Tolerance is not a
simple concept which either is or is not present; instead, it's a complex
concept with a spectrum of possible attitudes. It is thus not only possible for
a person to be "tolerant" of some idea, thing, or even person in one
way yet not another, but it is in fact the norm. While it might be reasonable
to expect tolerance in one sense, it's not necessarily reasonable to also
expect tolerance in another.
It's not reasonable to
insist that atheists "respect" religion and religious beliefs unless
we are suppressing their religion. And this is not what we are doing. We never
stop Christians from praying and worshiping their God. Unfortunately, the sort
of "respect" often demanded is more along the lines of high esteem,
admiration, and even deference.
It's not reasonable to
expect atheists to be "indulgent" (humoring, catering to whims, yield
to) of religion and religious beliefs they consider false. It's also not
reasonable to expect atheists to "lack opposition" to religion and
religious beliefs. To see just how absurd that would be, imagine demanding that
the opposition CORD be more "indulgent" of JUBILEE PARTY or that
JUBILEE PARTY "lack opposition" to CORD. Does that make any sense?
Does anyone expect something like that to happen? Of course not.
Such
"tolerance" isn't expected in other religious contexts, either. Jews
aren't expected to "lack opposition" to Christian claims that Jesus
was the Messiah. Christians aren't expected to be "indulgent" of
Islam. No one is expected to "respect" Osama bin Laden's religious
beliefs. Few if any people raise any objections to such situations. Why?
Because beliefs, ideas, and opinions don't deserve automatic tolerance except
in the last two senses.
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French-Arab novelist
Amin Maalouf wrote that "traditions deserve respect only insofar as they
are respectable." The same can be said for all ideas, beliefs, and
opinions and the basic principle can be expressed thus: they do not
"deserve" tolerance in the sense of being indulged, not being
opposed, and being respected, unless they earn that sort of tolerance.
I find it very curious
how often Christians demand tolerance of their religion even as so many
Christians refuse to demonstrate the same sort of tolerance towards others.
Some Christians argue that because Jesus made an exclusive claim to truth, they
are obliged to not be "indulgent" or "respectful" of
falsehoods. For me, the claim that Jesus is the son of God is simply not true.
It is ridiculous.
This, then, seems to be
the position which atheists are in. They are obliged to be "tolerant"