nonplussedbyreligion:

theanti-theist:

I have every right to condemn and actively work against forces for evil in the world, and that includes religion. I have every right to “disrespect” your religious beliefs. I hold no respect for any illogical, irrational, immoral authoritarian dogma. I actively oppose religion because it teaches us to be ashamed of being human, it condemns free thought and open inquery. It advocates violence, oppression, totalitarianism, and hate- for ourselves, for those who disagree with us, and for humanity as a whole. It impedes science, education, freedom of speech, freedom of choice, and moral and social evolution. It strikes fear into the hearts of children. As long as religion stands as an institution, it will be used as a means of violence and justification of immoral deeds. If you oppose the teaching of well-established modern scientific findings in schools, and wish to deny children all over the nation a proper scientific education simply because you haven’t bothered to look up the facts, or only look up the “facts” that support your pre-existing point of view, I have every right to call you an IDIOT, and I won’t be sorry for appearing arrogant. I have every right to arrogance when it comes to the refutation of outrageous, illogical, immoral claims that negatively affect the freedom of my fellow human beings. Even if you are religious, and completely secular when it comes to politics, and extremely liberal about it, you are in support of an evil cause, and you hold an evil dogma in your heart, and I beg you to open your eyes and reconsider, for the sake of humanity as a whole, for the sake of the freedom of future generations from this deplorable tyrrany, from this fear and hate, based solely upon ancient barbaric superstitions. Religion is the enemy of free thought. It is the enemy of reason. I stand for justice, equality, morality, and honesty-honesty to others and to ourselves. I stand for free thought. I stand for enlightenment and emancipation, and no, I will not back down. I will fight for these causes, and I will not respect your religious beliefs, I will not respect the tyrrany I find abhorrent in every way. I will speak my mind, and I don’t give a fuck if you call me arrogant, because you are the one with everything to prove, I’m the one simply making you aware of that.

I don’t usually reblog someone’s personal declaration, but I like this.  I’m often accused of arrogance for my stance on religion, I hardly view myself as such, but the accusations have still been made.  What I find most fascinating about that is I was also called arrogant when I was a theist.  I cannot name the number of times that members of my church, religious leaders, my family, and my seminary professors called me arrogant simply for wanting answers.  I’ve literally been told that my desire to learn more about the ways of God was coming from a place of pride and arrogance and I needed to work on my faith and obedience.  

The attempts they made to shut down my search, to humble me and keep me in line were not done with cruel intentions, but they belittled my intelligence.  What I should have been told is that they didn’t have the answers, but none of my accusers were humble enough to do that, so they put it back on me.  Makes me wonder who really was the arrogant one after all?  

I still don’t think I’m arrogant, I don’t know enough about anything to be arrogant, and learning for me is an active process. However, I sure as hell will not back down from my stance against religion because I’m called arrogant.  I’ve come too far to ever go back.   What I am however is confident.  When I say that I’ve never experienced evidence of gods, I do so with a confidence that has yet to be shaken. 

Arrogant is often what people call you when you’ve taken the effort to learn and not just be fed, when you seek to know more than the rest of the flock. ~ Kim