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I can understand, but do you really think that only the (not all) religious people try to manipulate the other ones? Are all those people who are manipulated by the celebrities fashions, the medias, blabla better?
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I said those who are given power within the religious circle (for instance, the whole clerical organization when talking about Christianity) are the ones taking advantage of the rest.
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Maybe true, but then again, we live in hypocritical societies and thinking that a person has a full control on its own mind is hypocritical.
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Oh, rest assured. I'm a social determinist, so I'll be the last person whom you'll hear say otherwise.
However, we cannot exclude the fact that thinking for yourself in many cases leads to atheism (yeah, the illusion of thinking for oneself, yada yada yada--I'm not saying we actually think by ourselves, I'm just saying we have a wider array of tools with which to interpret the world around us). And I believe thinking for oneself is, in general terms, a good thing.
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As I read you, I feel you see the persons who believe in a religion as crazy, not free and close minded.
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What? No, not at all. I'm not a preacher. Many of my best friends are religious, many of my coworkers are religious. An important part of my family is either Christian or displays some sort of opposition to religion that has little to do with atheism and more to do with irrational beliefs. I don't make my way through life preaching about how bad religion is. I'd be fucking annoying if I did that.
Still, I believe it to be one of society's biggest hurdles.
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Also, we already punish drinkers of absinthe and smokers of marijuna by means of the law, so I don't see what's so odd about that.
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Well, nothing, it's just that, as a marijuana smoker, I find the idea of being prosecuted as a criminal quite ludicrous, completely unrelated to morality (who the hell is being hurt by me smoking pot?) and more on the grounds of irrational beliefs--thus, on the field of stupid traditions brought forth by religious leaders.