have you ever noticed that there's a
stunning correlation between a person's
place of birth and their religious
affiliation have you ever noticed that
there's a stunning correlation between
someone's parents religious beliefs and
their own I can't count the amount of
times that upon asking a theist why they
subscribe to a particular religion that
I've been met with the responsive well
that's just because I was born into it
it's amazing how oftentimes religious
people can so effortlessly point out the
flaws and the doctrines of others that
fail entirely to apply precisely the
same rudimentary critical thinking to
their own faith I used to respond to
this assertion by trying to point out
that it's a logical fallacy and surely
they can see that their faith is so
obviously completely dependent upon
their geography but it never seems to
get through and why is this why are so
many religious people so insular and
dedicated despite knowing that they only
believe in their arbitrary God because
they were canalized into doing so well
if you ask me I think it's attributable
to the unwarranted privilege that
religion is so often granted in public
discourse okay you can satirize and
criticize someone's politics and that's
just the diversity of opinion but god
forbid you do the same thing for
someone's religious beliefs because well
then you're just the bigger I mean how
many times is someone being called a
racist simply for voicing in opposition
to the teachings of Islam if a Christian
is asked why they believe in their God
and they say well it's just because they
were brought up - well they derive
comfort from it they just feel as though
it's right but that's perfectly
acceptable why should anybody need to
justify their beliefs this is almost
something I can get behind but let's not
forget that it's these beliefs which are
infiltrating the politics of the masses
and the education of children if you
want to argue that your religion should
be taught in schools and that scientific
evidence should be ignored in favor of
ancient superstition before then I'm
sorry but you're gonna have to do a
little better than that
imagine if Hillary Clinton or Donald
Trump were asked why they support a
particular policy and their response was
that they would just brought up - or
they drive comfort from it or just feel
as though it's right would that be
sufficient to anyone
now of course if people keep their
religions to themselves then they
shouldn't necessarily be expected to
justify their reasoning that's that's
not what I'm trying to argue I just wish
the people wanted to I wish that we
could live in an educational environment
which promotes skepticism and freedom of
thought one in which no ideology is held
beyond the ability to criticize one
which expels bad ideas and promotes no
particular religious dogma and teaches
children that yes your beliefs are
probably just fine but guess what so are
other people's if this was a universal
reality not be a quite a quixotic one
but don't you think that radicalization
religious authoritarianism and holy wars
would all be a thing of the past that's
the thing secularism doesn't equate to
atheism secularism benefits everybody
yes it protects my right to be an
atheist but it also protects my friends
right to be a Muslim secularism just
means that each of these rights doesn't
undermine or infringe upon other rights
and that includes a child's right to a
scientific education or their right to
abstain from pledging allegiance every
morning to a god that they don't believe
in the founding fathers of the United
States were strictly secular okay we
hear so often that the country was
founded on Christian values
despite John Adams himself once stating
that the government of the United States
is not in any sense founded on the
Christian religion as noted in an
article from The Huffington Post on the
issue the Declaration of Independence
that the Articles of Confederation the
Federalist Papers and the Constitution
the four most important documents in
American history all unambiguously
proved the country's secular origins the
founding fathers were completely aware
of the dangers associated with a
religious state which is why they were
so explicit in trying to prevent it but
despite this every single president of
the United States has been a Christian
safe Jefferson and Lincoln but even they
were religiously ambiguous so they could
in theory still fit the bill look at the
division that exists in modern society
look at the scientific illiteracy of our
church look at the influence of a
Christian God upon a constitutionally
secular state
and look me in the eye and tell me that
we don't need secularism now more than
ever I may be an atheist but from a
secularists before I'm an atheist okay I
don't want to force kids to abandon
their religion I just want to create an
environment in which they can choose to
make that decision for themselves I'm
Alex O'Connor and thanks for listening
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