Cultural taboos against religious criticism are deeply ingrained. But are they justified? Apparently they are not. What happens is that generally people take criticism of their religious beliefs personally. It's as though religious beliefs hold some sort of position that is materially different from other beliefs that they hold. Except for the fact that religious beliefs are not reality based they are still simply ideas that a person has come across and decided to adopt.

I suggest that beliefs are a substitute for knowledge. Beliefs are not reality based, none of them. I do not have to believe my car is in the garage, I know it is there. I may believe the oil level is low if I have not checked it. In the case of my oil level my belief is not reality based. Of course a belief may turn out to be true or false or a combination. The problem arises when belief is held up as knowledge. No one really knows whether a supreme being exists or not.

Given that all beliefs are not reality based the bases (assumptions, premises) of those beliefs should be questionable. I agree with AtlLiberal. Criticism of religion is indeed free speech. The entirety of the First Amendment says it is as I read it.

In the case of my oil level my belief is not reality based.

I can't go so far as to accept this. If in fact you had no knowedge of automobiles, a weak argument could be made that your belief is faith based. Naturally, the main difference is that you would always be able to find out the method to check whether or not your car needed oil or not and that can never be accomplished with a deity. There is no "god dip stick".

I suppose we have a difference of opinion of what a belief is. I understand your position; I just don't fully accept it.

<Beliefs which are true and valid cannot be harmed by criticism, even by unfair and incorrect criticism. Beliefs which are not true or valid will only be revealed through criticism. What this means is that if we care about the truth, we should welcome criticism of even our most treasured beliefs>

That really does say it all for me (except the bit about truth and validity which apply to knowledge, not religious belief).

You are taking the words right out of Ben Fraklin's mouth. He also quoted such things and mainly denounced certain religious organizations except for christians because that page of history has been torn out by most people oh and if you have one of those old history books which states that he did things like that and that Hitler was a Catholic and anything else like evolution or something about neanderthales or whatever could you send those over, me and my friends plan to have a book burning club the first one was I'll give you a hint 90210

@dlm
Now I warned you about going off your meds. See what happens.