Religion's Prison

There is a world of difference between demonizing people because of their religion or ethnicity, which is wrong, and criticizing their religion itself, which is not.  A basic human right, written into law in the United States, is freedom of religion. People in the United States can reject religion, change religions, and criticize religion without fear of punishment or death.

There is no punishment for apostasy in free societies.

There is no punishment for blasphemy in free societies.

Free people are not held in bondage by apostasy and blasphemy laws.

Criticizing and mocking a religion may be distasteful, but it is a basic human right.

There are people on YouTube that mock a religion. These people do not call for hate or violence towards the practicers of that religion. It is their right to try and convert, change, or dissuade people. Religion exists in the world of ideas. People have the right to challenge ideas, ideologies and religious beliefs. Without that right, we remain stuck in the most violent years of the middle ages.Yet they face censorship and threats of violence.

Religion can be a force for good, or it can be a force for evil. When religion encourages violence, hate, and bigotry, then it is a force for evil. When religion controls all aspects of  a person's life, it is then a harmful cult.

There are those that do not understand the difference between bigotry and hate for the people that follow a religion, and criticizing the religion that they follow. The former is wrong and must be resisted. The latter is a basic human right.

Religion and faith are not necessarily one and the same. Religion is too often used to brainwash people and make them sheeplike followers.

It is unfortunate and wrong when children from any religion are raised divorced from the secular world, without exposure to the rich wealth of ideas that mankind has discovered over the centuries,

As long as religious imperialism runs rampant, as long as people must fear for their lives from people that shove their beliefs violently down the throats of others, as long as blasphemy and apostasy are crimes worthy of death or another punishment, this world will be held in bondage.

Not by coronavirus, but by a religious ideology that free people are increasingly told to never challenge.