A thought in light of yesterday's killings in France:

People do not deserve to be mocked, but ideas do.

Organized religion - uniting under the umbrella of a sacred belief - is fundamentally a dangerous and harmful idea. Even when the people involved do charity, and do not bomb and shoot.

Ideas kill people. But unlike people, ideas can't be killed. Mocking them intelligently is the best we can do. Don't let that go.


Voices like the following will protest:

Why is organized religion such a bad idea? Some people use religion for different purposes. For some it's a guiding light or it's just a moral compass. Organized religion is about as harmless as can be. It's the people who contort the idea then turn a harmless religion into corrupt propaganda for a senseless cause that harm the image of the religion.

Organized religion is like a man using a gun to shoot. When organized, religion is the gun.

By banding together under a cause, you are that gun. You become part of it. You're making yourself available for people who are going to use it to shoot.

Be a person, first and foremost. Don't be a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Christian, or a Jew. Don't be a Republican or a Democrat, a German or a Frenchman, or a Shia or a Sunni.

Cherish whatever beliefs you want. Support a cause, if it's worth it - but be prepared to abandon it when it's misused.

Think for yourself, and just be you. Identifying with a system of ideas is harmful.