I believe in the Lord and there's nothing you all can do about it.
I respect your First Amendment rights not to have the government telling you what you are allowed to believe, or what you must believe.
I don't happen to believe in God myself.
But I believe there is such a thing as right and wrong, and even the whole human race can't vote to make something right that
is wrong, any more than they can make 2+2=5 a true statement.
Right and wrong is something people can find out about, by using their consciences, by thinking rationally based on obvious principles like fairness and reciprocity, and so on; not something they can make up as they go along to suit their own interests.
And I know that I am more than just an empty, hollow machine: I myself see what is imaged on my retina and sent as nerve impulses to my brain, I myself hear what my ears detect. I exist. I care that I continue to live. I care whether I experience pleasure or pain.
And I believe that other people are also conscious, and therefore they matter just as much as I do.
These two truths are expressed and reinforced by the teachings of many religious faiths.
I think of religion, therefore, as basically a force for good. I don't even know for sure that it's obsolete, because for many it's easier to understand than philosophy, and it's far less wrong than the crude atheism that views human beings more as means to an end than ends in themselves.
Religions tell people not to do violence, not to steal, and so on. Unfortunately, sometimes that "so on" includes dubious stuff, such as practices that deny equality to women, or a tolerance for violence to people outside the faith community. When this happens, I have a problem with those religions.
But if anyone decides to hold an Inquisition in the name of atheism, I'd have a problem with them too.
