Discussion of religion is taboo precisely because of this attitude. I’ve been thinking about this for a bit and I want to take a crack at explaining it for believers and atheists alike.People who tell me my God isn't real insult me. Not that I care about them insulting me, but more of them insulting God, and also themselves.
Imagine someone walks up to you and compliments the pants you are wearing.
“Hey, nice pants! Do you like them?”
“Yeah, I guess I do. Thanks!”
“Did you know that those pants were made by papa smurf?”
Conundrum: What am I to do.
I know a bit about pants. Where they come from, who makes them, why they make them, where they are sold, and the equipment used to make them.
I know a bit about the pants that I am wearing in particular. That there’s a tag on them saying “made in china”, that I bought them at target, that they are khaki’s from a company called “faded glory” and what that means about their social origin.
I also know a lot about smurfs. Invented by Pierre Culliford for a comic strip in the late 1950’s. cartoon characters. Imaginary. Chased by Gargamel and his cat. Replace many words with “smurf”.
Putting what I know about these things it is abundantly clear that there is no way that my pants were, in any way, made by papa smurf.
Now, I have in front of me a person who just proclaimed an honest, well-intended statement about something they believe intrinsically.
I know beyond reasonable doubt that what they said is wrong. If I just come out and say: “There is no possible way that papa smurf made my pants.” It is immediately confrontational. It also comes off as offensive to the person with this cherished belief because one of our first interactions was for me to call down one of their cherished beliefs in public and in front of other people which represent prospective friends and allies.
Society likes for us to give everybody lots of elbow room when it comes to their tightly held beliefs, and that’s largely because they react so negatively when those beliefs are challenged. I am asked not to poke the hornet’s nest because it will cause a stir. I am asked to at least pretend that I haven’t heard what I heard, or pretend that, yeah, maybe my pants could have been made by papa smurf.
But the truth is, there is no indication that that belief has any solid ground, and a very substantial amount of evidence which directly contradicts the claim. In fact, in the case of the maker of my pants, I can conclusively trace that origin to the satisfaction of any non-vested witness that the claim of the believer is resoundingly incorrect.
The problem being, if I refute the claim of the believer, their irrational attachment and intrinsic self-association with that belief may inspire like-wise irrational hostility. That’s why I have been condemned to hell on forums for pointing out that god probably doesn’t exist, and why Muslims can threaten death for drawings of Mohammad.
Make no mistake. The man who tries to kill someone else for drawing a picture is at fault. Not the man who draws the picture. There is literally NOTHING that you could say or type to make me want to kill you, or wish for you to suffer for all eternity in hell.
If you feel overwhelming insult when someone merely challenges your beliefs, ask yourself why that is. Why should someone else’s doubt cause YOU any anguish?
If I assert that 2+2=7, are you angry? Are you personally insulted? Why not? Think about that.