MY RIGHT TO LEAD PEOPLE AWAY FROM RELIGION

Abraham Rinquist October 11, 2016 "Religion is based on faith, not reason. Con artists are quick to take advantage. Some do it for money; others do it for publicity or even out of genuine conviction. As long as people continue to believe in miracles and divine revelation, others will exploit it."

It is my business to supply my beliefs to others even if they are wrong beliefs as long as I am open to being shown to be wrong. If it is my business what I believe then it is my business if I believe I must make those beliefs available to others so that they might adopt them too.

If a religion does wrong we must state loudly what we believe and what we know. We must loudly declare the ways of righteousness. There is no need to criticise them. There is no need to condemn them. Such criticism is always a sign of spite. The answer is not criticism but discussion.

If people have a right to have religious beliefs then they have to admit that we have the right to ask them to be consistent. For example, if a religion claims to be the truth and it forbids people to think it is not respecting its own claim to be the truth. In fact it is disrespecting itself far more than any critic could ever disrespect it.

It is better to live the right way with joy than to preach to anyone. If you say encouraging things you will not need to preach. It is actions not words that speak to the hearts and draw them to the fountain of grace and mercy.

An example is when somebody fears loved ones going to Hell forever. If you say nothing you are putting religion before that person and encouraging and prolonging their pain. You should ask them, "Don't you think human nature is a mixture of bad and good? Would anybody really be bad enough to reject love forever?" You are not preaching to them. But you are helping them to get the courage to question things for themselves. That will work far better than preaching.

Religious faith and being made to conform to it can leave psychological scars. To eradicate such danger, material refuting religion must be made available to those who need it. But openly attacking a religion is unacceptable. If we show how wonderful the truth is by our way of life then we won’t need to condemn the faith of others and those who embrace it.

It can sound like one is criticising somebody's religion when one is not. For example, it is criticism to say that belief in a superior God is rubbish. But if you help people that belief in a superior God blocks self-esteem and is damaging that is not criticism but therapy. Its goal is to make you honour yourself in the place of God. To do that is to automatically honour others too. Such things need to be said for you have the right to encourage others to work for a happier world for you have to live in this world.

The Christian who tells the kindly and happy Muslim lady that Islam is wrong is criticising religion and demeaning her. The therapist who gently tries to help her see the truth about ideas that are upsetting and hurting her more than she realises is helping her.