Philosophy of Religion
Richard Dawkins argues the fact that religion has preferential treatment in society by ways of rights and respect. In the book “the god delusion” Dawkins states that religions around the world have “underserved respect” which I think is a great way of stating what is going on. Religion has respect all around the world, and people who go to church and practice have respect from their peers. He is saying that it is underserved because he’s an atheist and doesn’t believe in any of it. He says in the book that “ a widespread assumption, which nearly everybody in our society accepts- the non-religious included – is that religious faith is especially vulnerable to offence and should be protected by an abnormally thick wall of respect, in a different class from the respect that any human being should pay to any other”. I believe he is right on in his description of respect that faith and religion gets in this world. He uses examples like “ethnic cleansing” in Iraq, but he really says that it is religious cleaning in Iraq between shunni and Shiite. He also uses the example of ethnic cleaning in the Balkans and Europe. He uses the Supreme Court case on February 21, 2006 in which the Supreme Court ruled in accordance with the constitution, that a church in New Mexico should be exempt from the law, which everybody else has to obey by, against taking of hallucinogenic drugs. Members of a church in New Mexico wanted to use this drug so that they could understand god and become closer to god by drinking this kind of drug in tea form. They think that it enhances their understanding of god. He says that the church did not need to prove or provide evidence to the Supreme Court that the drug helped them become closer a ...