Is There Enough Respect in Religious Debates?

This is something I remember reading many years ago, which some people may take as being disrespectful to religion.

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion."
— Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values)

In religious debates, respect is asked for by religious people for their God. Unfortunately, it is not just normal good manners that are asked, but the kind of respect you would have if you were talking about their new fiancee. Is a fair debate possible under such circumstances?

Scientists and liberals, when debating religion, often are disrespectful of religious fundamentalists. So scientists seem to always talk down to them as if they were children. I think the problem of respect is caused by the subject matter of the debate.

I just want to give an idea here of why scientists may laugh at the story of creation. The biblical story of Creation starts with a God who creates a universe a thousand trillion times the size of the earth in order to create man, and then puts the tree of knowledge right where Eve can get it. And sure enough within a few days, all of this wondrous creation has an epic failure because Adam eats an apple. For the the rest of eternity, man, the thing that the entire universe was created for, suffers in agony over that event which could have been avoided by a bit of barbed wire or an electric fence. Even if this was only taken as an allegory, it is hard for a non believer to not laugh at the absurdity. But over hundreds of years, so many people have been burned to death for laughing at it, that it kind of dulls the humour.

Steve Pakin and Richard Dawkins on Respect for religion

Any discussion must have mutual respect, but some religions are not intended to be discussed or questioned, they are only to be obeyed unquestioningly. Furthermore, it appears that the more absurd the story, the better a test it is for your blind faith and obedience. And by the way, science is meant to be questioned, no matter what religious people might want you to believe. Science in this way is fundamentally the opposite of religion.

The biblical story of creation itself is a good example of a test of blind faith and obedience. You can hardly keep a straight face while talking about it. A scientist can hardly hold back the torrent of questions and “what ifs” that spring to mind as you hear the biblical tale told. If you compare it to some other stories from “pagan” religions, you will find even the pagan stories do not strain the bounds of reason as much. Many pagan stories actually work acceptably as an allegory, while the biblical story, even as an allegory is kind of twisted. One reason for this difference is that many stories of creation were passed on in oral tradition, and they might have improved with time, and at least stayed somewhat in step with the culture. A written tradition would freeze the story and with time would required greater denial of reality from true believers. Which in turn required greater atrocities and threats to make people believe in them.

Not that long ago religious leaders used to put people to some kind of slow horrible death for non believing. Imagine the queue of chained converts shuffling forward to the grand Inquisitor, who will decide their fate. Many people are being roasted alive right behind him. Each scared convert steps forward in turn to be questioned by the Grand Inquisitor about their faith. Even with all the screaming and the smell of burning human flesh, some can't suppress a giggle when they hear about the story of God creating Adam and Eve. They, of course are burned alive, and the line moves forward. Anybody else laughing?

As a test of faith, the biblical story of creation is a real challenge today. By the time of Jesus, I would argue the old testament bible was already starting to lose it's relevance, and Jesus did his best to inject some new ideas, but ultimately got crucified for it. And with cultural and scientific advances today, it's falling even further behind current knowledge and morality.

Respect is wonderful, but imagine your neighbour coming over to your house to show you his brand new car he just paid $80,000 for. You go over to see and it's a Model T Ford. Are you serious, you say before you begin to try to restrain a giggle. It's hard to be serious when he tells you it'll go 200 miles an hour (it won't) and get 400 miles per gallon (not that either.) It doesn't even have an electric start. Then he wants you to go an buy one yourself. You say no, thanks, you would prefer a Flinstonemobile. Then he gets kind of pushy, insulting your own car as being a pile of junk. This is starting to resemble a typical religious conversation isn't it?

The picture is from this website where you can order your own creation felt set of creation.