I do agree, when deciding things in the world it should be based on reason and logic, because basing something off of religious ideology is effectively asking everyone else to respect the fact that someone believes something without evidence. But that is what it is about, it's about 'faith' is the most common catchphrase. But if a guy was running around telling everyone to prepare a space armada to fight martians but had no proof, most sane people would ignore him. Until he could adequately prove his belief as fact he would rightly be ignored. But the religious respect concept asks us to do precisely the opposite, applied to the above it would be like building a space armada based purely on that persons belief, which would be ridiculous. Yet this is what religious people ask. Not to mention religious people have persecuted and murdered people throughout history, yet they demand that everyone respect their beliefs when very few religious people have done so. They should just be grateful that the people of the world don't do unto them what they did unto the so called unbelievers. The irony of all this is I am not an atheist, but I also know expecting people to change their behaviours based upon my belief is extremely arrogant. I have spent a good portion of my life meditating and contemplating on various aspects of creation, which has lead me to my own beliefs. But the biggest threat to my own beliefs is any sort of religious resurgence which could see people persecuted and murdered because they refuse to believe a dogma, I would go so far as saying the biggest threat to freedom of thought and belief is religion. The other irony is that I worked hard to determine my own beliefs and yet I am supposed to work around the beliefs of someone who all they did was read a book. I follow my beliefs but pigs will fly before I ever expect anyone else to change their behaviour over my faith. Yes, I realise many never even read their religious text but was fooled or brainwashed by their parents, to those people I feel pity, no thoughts are harder to deprogram then those repetitiously imbedded by a religious upbringing. Also anyone notice that science has produced more miracles then all religion combined, they just don't generally call them miracles because they can actually explain how they work. But you take modern tech back 2000 years and it would be called magic and miracles. Yes, I don't like religion, yes, I believe in a divine creating intelligence, but I in no way see science as being in opposition to faith and if science actually opposed my belief then I would be wrong and would be required to revise my belief structure in accordance to the new knowledge. How many times you hear a believer say that. Peace P.S. I in no way condone violence towards others. Whether it is based upon their religious or ideological viewpoints or not. We should treat each other with respect and tolerance, as each individual should be valued and cherished as a human being. While I am required to respect the individual, it is important to note that 'ideas do not make the person, the person makes the ideas' and thus ideas do not require the same respect as the individual, as they are seperate things. Remember we all have free will, so nothing I have said is a command, it is simply an idea free to be spurned, ignored or contemplated as you see fit.