I don’t have a problem with Religion in general. There are just a few specific things that come away from it, which if left unchecked can become really problematic. The first is hypocrisy. Almost every religious institution contains some form of contradiction in it. Christians for instance. They state that authority should be respected and the laws of man should be treated as if they are the laws of God himself. Additionally, they state that only God can pass judgement. Furthermore, they say that we are all granted the power to choose whether or not we follow God. But do the laws of man not diminish our ability to choose God’s path or Satan’s? So not only are we infringing upon people’s power to choose God for themselves, but we also pass judgment on them which is a right reserved for God. Another issue arises as the lines of religion become blurred, moving from the private sphere to the public one. We have a history of acting as though our own personal beliefs carry some weight in the rest of the global or national society. This is simply not true. Your beliefs are yours and quite frankly, no one else really cares and rightly so. Since the white man first landed on this continent, they began using their white God to justify inhuman and horrid things. From the original conquest of the Natives to the misguided idea of “Manifest Destiny”, we have disguised our own motives and greedy desires as the will of God. This problem persists today in the argument over a woman’s right to choose. From a scientific standpoint, a fetus is not a life form like you or I. Surely it is alive, but is more a parasite than a human being because it lacks the necessary faculties to survive without nourishment from another organism. So unless we were to provide a right to live for other “lesser beings” like dogs, cats and horses or tapeworms, we can not logically provide such a right for fetuses. That being said, the desire to outlaw abortions is based purely on a belief in a higher power and not on actual facts which can be argued and supported. The same can be said about the crusade against gay marriage. Like abortion, it is not enough for most religious individuals to say “I don’t think abortion is right, so I will not choose to have one.” or “I do not believe homosexuality is right, so I will not engage in it.” Instead, religious zealots seek to impose their own views on others. Views which cannot be supported by anything rational, but rather a fallacious principle known as faith. What it comes down to, is that religion has no place in society. It is not a prerequisite of a morally upstanding nation to be religious. Wisdom, compassion, rationality and empathy are. Religion arose from our inability to explain the world around us because we lacked the luxuries of modern science. It is a thing of the past. If you are practitioner of religion, that’s fine but you must accept that others do not have to acknowledge, share or even listen to your beliefs. We do have the freedom to speech in this Nation, but if your speech is taking the form of hate then you should probably re-evaluate the congruence of that speech with the beliefs you supposedly hold. I understand that Evangelism is an integral part of some religions but that endeavor should be limited to personal matters and you ought to respect those who clearly don’t want to be converted by leaving them alone. Such is the case in the issues of abortion and homosexuality which I mentioned earlier. It should be obvious to you that a homosexual individual does not want to be told he is a sinner and it should be enough for you to believe that yourself. Furthermore, you aren't trying to bring that person towards God by his own accord. You are trying to force the individual to conform to your beliefs by making changes to the law and their environment. If you have to force someone to share in your belief using laws and legislation or fear and yelling then you should probably reconsider how valid those beliefs are. What it comes down to is that you aren't trying to help anyone, you are trying to limit that individual in the same way you have limited yourself by serving an imaginary entity.