The Right to Believe

I came across an interesting posting which posed the question do we really have the " Freedom To Decide" our beliefs?

In much on of the world today we have laws that give us the right to free speech and the rights to religious freedom. This means that under the law we cannot be persecuted for our beliefs. But, does this give us religious freedom?

Look around the world today and you will as much hate and fighting between religious groups. Take the great tragedy of 911 as an example. A small group of terrorists, who claim to fight for a religious group, attack and destroyed two buildings and killed many lives. After the attack many turned their anger not only to the small group that was responsible, but towards any who followed the same faith the terrorists claimed to be fighting for. Government even follow suite harassing anyone with the wrong colour skin. Is this the right of religious freedom?

I believe that spiritually and belief is a personal thing, but there is one belief systems that I hold closest to and occasionally attend their groups. I tend to be reluctant to give people the name of the group because the information on the web is not accurate, at least not to the group I attend. The group is often considered a UFO cult, but in reality it is not. Most people say that the group is a bunch of wakos or worse, but the people in the group are intelligent people who I am proud to call my friends.

I'd like to think that most people are tolerant, but we are still ignorant of each others beliefs. Religion is one of the things you don't talk about. Through ignorance suspicion and hate are formed. We fear the unknown and the unfamiliar. I encourage everyone to make religion one of the things we do talk about, learn what other believe, why they believe it, and how they practise it. You don't have to believe what I or anyone else believes, but understand and respect their beliefs and their right to believe it.