Freethinking Upstart

As the name of my blog implies, I'm no fan of religion. However I do believe in Freedom of Religion and a huge majority of the earth's population subscribes to some kind of religion. I need to get along with my fellow humans.

In the real world, I am a very personable guy and I respect other's beliefs. I do not try to engage people in casual conversation to question their beliefs because this can be a very intimidating, embarrassing and otherwise uncomfortable feeling for all parties involved. What I do promote, though is peace among believers and non-believers and believers and believers, in other words ecumenism and inter-faith pluralism.

When you point out the similarities and common truths that can be found amongst religions in a positive light, this can be a highly enlightening experience, especially those that are commonly closed off to people of other faith. "They believe that too?" and "Wow, we have a similar religious practices!" This type of knowledge can bring peace and remove unconscious prejudices that in-groups have for out-groups.

When there is common ground, the wicked notion of heretic, apikorus, and kafir seems somehow unimportant or at the very least can open people to the idea of different strokes for different folks.