My little anti-religion rant on Sunday night prompted two people to unfriend me. That's ok, one was an obvious faker and should go hang out on myspace.com and the other was a lurker I've never found interesting in any way. No loss for me. My goal wasn't to offend, but I certainly realized it might be a consequence and I was prepared for it.

A friend said my post was one of those "like people, hate humanity" things. I guess there's some truth in that. I can overlook things about people that I consider character flaws if they aren't relevant to our interaction - I have more than a few coworkers who are Republican but I'm still able to work with them fine, and I almost never hold discussions about astrology against people. I know a man who is a Jesuit priest and he's someone I like and respect. We talk about religion sometimes, and I have to say there are few conversations more engaging than discussing religious theory with a Jesuit. He's a good guy and I like him. I've never broached the topic of my previous post with him, and I don't know if I ever will. If I did, it might be an interesting time, heh.

One of the comments I made in my previous post was that people seem to give others a free pass when it comes to religious beliefs. So many people are reluctant to criticize another's religious beliefs, much more than any other irrational belief. I mean, if you believed that eating Pop Rocks and drinking Pepsi will make your stomach explode, people would tell you that you're wrong. If you walked around saying the world was flat, no one would hesitate to inform you that you were woefully ignorant or just plain nuts. So why does no one challenge people for their irrational religious beliefs? Is it what I said, that it's a silent conspiracy of mutual tolerance of religious belief as a defense of one's own beliefs? Or is there something else going on?