I do not condone killing ...

[F4lconF16]

159. Cultures can and should be criticized.

In doing so, we may have to attack the religion itself. Yes, religions advance, but they rarely do so without large numbers of people raising awareness about their injustices.

The point is attack the issue, not the religion.

But the issue is part of the religion. The idea that the Catholic Church's homophobia is somehow separate from their other beliefs is wrong. Each idea, each belief, is part of a larger set of beliefs that defines the religion. In many cases, there are bigoted and hateful beliefs that are part of a religion's doctrine. When I criticize the Catholic Church for their homophobic practices, I am doing so in the hopes that their set of beliefs will change. However, I do criticize the church--not just homophobia. That's because the church continues to push their bigotry (and this is critical) as part of their religious doctrine. When the Church practices something I find morally repugnant, I will criticize the church--not just each individual idea.

This is not to say that we should attack religion in a manner that is hateful. In reference to the Charlie Hebdo criticism, while I think the points they made were good, I don't like the way they do it. They use stereotypes and caricatures of cultures and people that I think perpetuate ignorance and unbased hatred. (Standard disclaimer, because it's necessary now: they had every right to say it, I do not blame them in any way for the shooting. They are not responsible for stupid people doing terrible things because of their stupidity).

People are born into and raised in a religion, and it is part of their culture. It is not merely the beliefs about God and the religious doctrines.

This makes no difference whatsoever in regards to criticizing religion. I don't care how ingrained your belief is; if it's bigoted, I will attack. Full stop.

It does, however, mean that it's necessary to criticize it in such a way that the audience will listen. As pretty much any atheist will tell you, it's very challenging to talk with a believer about their beliefs. Because it's so ingrained, it is hard to communicate with them without angering them. When you tell someone that you think the foundation of their core beliefs about the world are not only wrong, but non-existent and harmful, they tend to shut you off, no matter how politely you phrase it. This is why, in one-on-one conversations with people who are my friends and open to new ideas, I have a discussion. When I discuss religion in a general sense, I attack, because people refuse to listen when you're polite. I am a full advocate for "in your face atheism", just as I am for "in your face homosexuality" or massive protests that shut down highways in response to police brutality and overt racism. Yeah, these tactics piss some people off. But they're often the only way to get people to listen.

Every culture has a religion. Most of them were sexist, homophobic, as society generally was. They may be slower to progress, but they eventually do.

That's nice for the religions and their believers. Unfortunately for the rest of us in the meantime, they can and do cause great amounts of harm. We should fight them, loudly and hard, whenever they are injust and bigoted.