Ban Religion?

I seriously get the impression that people have no idea what "ban" means. What goes through the minds of these people must be something like this: "if we ban something then the people will know that is is forbidden and they will not do it any longer". If someone actually thinks that way then he has absolutely no idea what bans are. It is not a surprise then why you have people in the world who have a big giant hard on for bans. Anything they do not like - ban. Because in the minds of these people if something gets banned then the people will stop doing it. It makes sense that if you actually think of bans this way then you would support them, because you think legislation is sufficient to change people. I wrote some time ago about what exactly bans are and why we need to oppose them under almost all circumstances here.

As a result of the failure of these people to understand what bans in actuality are and how they work there are atheists who support a ban on religion. It would be illegal to be religious or at least it would be illegal to be part of some organized religion. These atheists are in the minority, I definitely hope so, but they do exist, and not such a tiny minority. I am scared that when atheism starts to become more popular there may be countries that will support a ban on religion, perhaps not an outright ban on religion, but a ban on perhaps organized religious activity. I am not sure if this will even happen, but I think this is a problem worth discussing now because it definitely has potential to be a problem in the future. Atheists of today need to understand this situation that can come up in the future so that we will never actually bring ourselves so lowly to ban religion.

I have no idea if Elton John is an atheist or not but he supports a ban on religion because he says that religion is anti-homosexuality. I have several problems with Elton John's argument one of which is the ridiculous proposal to ban religion in the first place, but let us ignore this issue. Elton John would like to see religion banned because it is against homosexuals, but he never mentions that it has been also and still sometimes is anti-Jewish, anti-women, and anti-atheist. That does not bother him so much, the fact that it is anti-homosexual is what bothers him enough to favor a ban of it. The number of Jews, women and atheists who suffered as a result of religion far exceeds the number of homosexuals, so I can see why it would insult some people for Elton John to make such a statement like that. Second of all there are religions that work towards making homosexuals feel more accepted. There are tons of Churches like that. Why should these Churches have to suffer just because there are/were Churches which were anti-gay? Elton John's statement has no sense to justice.

What will a ban on religion actually accomplish? It will lead to an all out war. Religious people care so much about their religion that they would be willing to die for it. I can assure you a ban will not stop them, it will just lead to violence against civilians which will eventually turn into a bloody war. And atheism, for its first time in history, would be blamed for evil. So far atheism has a clean record, let us make sure it stays that way.

The way to fight religion is not by laws or bans, that never works and will lead to terrible murder. But by influencing people. By supporting free speech. By not protecting religion from harsh speech because, "it is intolerant and offensive". Religion is in its death days. The number of people leaving religion behind is growing faster than it ever has, thanks to the internet and speech between people. The people from my generation, late teens and early 20's, have already reach 20% of non-religious population in the United States, the last time I checked this statistic. That is record high, and atheism will only continue to grow. We just have to be patient. Religion will lose its influence and we will eventually live in a mostly reasonable society.

I understand the argument that atheists who support a ban on religion use. They say that religion makes people do evil things, it makes people be homophobic or racist or sexist. Religion is oppressive, they say. And they are correct for the most part. But what they fail to realize is that we cannot fight oppression with oppression. Banning religion is to oppress the religious people. Once we do that we turn into hypocrites, "religion is oppressive, so we will oppress religious believers".

Russia plans to ban "cults (religion is just a big cult). Germany has banned Scientology because it is "not a religion but exploitation". France has banned the burqa on Muslim people. And as much as I hate cults, Scientology and burqas I am exponentially times more bothered by these bans. Russia, Germany and France have all thrown away the ideas of the separation of church and state. Especially France. Shame on you France, be embarrassed of yourself. I always disliked France (like a good conservative ^^) but now I have a good reason to really dislike France for its terrible policy of banning burqas. These stories frighten me because I see them as the beginning steps of actually outright controlling religions or perhaps even banning them.

We just need to learn to be patient and allow reason to prevail over the superstitions of people. It is already happening. But we must be patient and not rush things. Please do not make atheism responsible for the evils that religion was responsible in the past. Think about these things before you propose such policies.

In case you do not believe me here are some YouTube videos supporting a ban on religion. I would like you to look at the number of people who like the video and the number of people who dislike it. More like it than dislike it. First, check out this video. Read the comments on this video. Some are nice to read, but some are sad that do support this idea. Actually, there was a sad and equally funny comment by evergladepictures which reads:

"i love the video man..!!!! amen..! ban religions i say..for they are nothing
but destruction and branwashing shits... i am gonna make a video soon buddy to
ban religions!! do not give up we gotta ban em! for G-d himself is not part of
religions he didnt even made them for christ sake..they are man made...G-d is
mother nature ...doesnt need a fucking religion..".

Of course this is a sad admission by him to want to ban religion but it is also so funny! First of all he appears to be Jewish by using "G-d" instead of "God". Second of all he vindicates my argument that environmentalism is a religion. I have accused environmentalism as being a religion on a few occasions and he confirms it for himself with the statement, "G-d is mother nature". Or consider this video. You will come across several comments that do advocate a ban on religion. Again, I am sure that these kind of atheists are in the minority, but they do exist, and not by very small numbers. This is why I am scared that atheists have a chance to commit evils in the future.