(attempted to write this in the form of a short op-ed piece / letter to the editor like you'd do for a newspaper).
In these past five years, I have heard about and read about some pretty messed up things happening in the name of religion; Jessica Dutro beat her 4 year old son to death because she believed he acted gay. In France, the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, were attacked by Islamic terrorists retaliating against the paper for publishing a cartoon image of The Prophet Muhammed. Robert Dear, a self-proclaimed anti-abortion activist, went on a shooting spree in a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood building, wounding nine people and killing three. And most recently, Omar Mateen, went on a rampage in a Florida gay club that resulted in the shooting deaths of 50 people.
I am not sure how I can say what I want to say without coming across as "anti-theist" rather than simply "atheist," but my opinion is that the only thing that separates a "moderate" person of religious faith from a person of the "extremist fanatic" persuasion is an ability to brush off some of the more crazy sounding rules and commands from their ancient myth books and acknowledge it as silly nonsense made up by people who didn't understand their world and how things work. Unfortunately, the stuff that people seem most determined to keep are the things that give a free pass to their personal prejudices, such as "thou shalt not lie with mankind as womankind." That stuff about not eating shrimp or that stuff about not wearing clothing made of mixed fibers? Oh sure, that's silly. But that stuff about the gays, that stuff is still good, so let's just keep that how it is.
Reading a religious book doesn't always turn someone into a nutjob. I grew up Christian, reading the Bible turned me into an atheist, so I certaintly wouldn't want religious texts banned, or for everyone who owns a Bible or Koran to be put on some government watch list. But what I really would like is for our society to maybe put a greater emphasis on the value of being able to separate reality from fiction. I want a society that takes these stories no more seriously than they would Greek Mythology. Nobody goes around killing in the name of Zeus, because we're taught from an early age that he isn't real.
In a perfect world, our schools totally would teach about Yahweh and Allah, but not as living, breathing entities who need to be appeased, but as fictional creations. In a perfect world, Robert Dear wouldn't have shot up that Planned Parenthood, and Omar Mateen wouldn't have shot up that gay club because they both would have been taught during their formative years that characters from religious books aren't real, just inventions dreamed up by humans to explain things they didn't understand. In a perfect world, we would not be afraid of offending people and bringing their religious wrath upon our heads because we said something critical about their religion or drew a picture of their prophet.
I don't want to take away people's right to believe whatever they want to believe, but I do wish that we as a society had more testicular fortitude, more commen sense and less willingness to kow-tow and placate people out of a fear of retribution for having offended them. In our quest to be ultra-tolerant, even of the most insane beliefs, we make ourselves appear as doormats to the people who very much wish to walk all over us. I won't be one of those doormats, I will call it like I see it and I hope others will do the same.
Updated by NotMeNotYou