When someone becomes overly insistent and overly aggressive about the truth behind their deeply held religious beliefs, I like to remind them that their deeply held religious beliefs are almost certainly predicated upon geography.
For the vast majority of people, religious belief simply correlates to where they spent most of their childhood. It is not a found or discovered belief but an inherited one. In the United States, for example, 56% of people affiliated with organized religion were born into that religion, and another 20% have merely changed church affiliation within the Christian or Jewish faith.
As a result, more than three-quarters of Americans espouse a religious belief because they were born in the United States to parents who had the same belief.
But let’s be honest:
If these same people were born in Saudi Arabia, they would almost certainly be Islamic.
If they were born in Tibet, they would almost certainly be Buddhist.
If they were born in India, they would likely be Hindu.
Considering that 23% of Americans are nonbelievers, this means that less than 3% of Americans are currently affiliated with a religious belief that they did not inherit upon birth and is not based upon their childhood mailing address.
So relax, you overly aggressive religious interlopers.
I’m not saying that your geographically inherited religious belief is any less important, meaningful, valid, or spiritually satisfying as a belief (or absence of belief) that is realized only after careful study and introspection.
I’m only saying that this is true if you are attempting to impose your geographically-based beliefs upon others through some political, legal, or economic means.
Your religious belief may be true to you, but just remember why you probably think it’s true and let the rest of us believe what we want, absent of any judgment or persecution.
