Should we give respect?

Since the stupid burn a Koran thing has exploded throughout the media in such an unbelievable way. I feel the need to use my blog to insert my own opinion. Why should anyone care about my opinion. Ummm. They shouldn't.

But this is my blog and I shall write what I like.
This isn't going to be a normal entry. There are no facts or information here. I'm relaying my own value judgment on the subject of respect for religion.  

This whole uproar is simply ridiculous. I find the whole hypocrisy associated with irrational systems of belief to be simply absurd.
Lets break it down. The Muslims are upset because someone wants to burn their holy book. Why? Because they see their book as sacred and sacred things must be treated with respect. Why? Because. Allah says so.

Just because one person considers something to be sacred. Should not mean that everyone else is forced to accept that view point. This is one of those special exemptions that religion seems to have in our society. All other ideas and points of view are up for debate and criticism. But religious ideas seem to have a special sort of protection. Because some group of people, place a particular importance in some ink on a few pages bound up in a cover. The rest of us are expected to respect that? I mean really? I may even be able to accept this ridiculous state of affairs if the religious would return the favor. But that is not the case. On the one had they proclaim that their faith is the one and only truth and that all their ideas are to be respected. And on the other hand they fail to respect the ideas and beliefs of others. You can't have it both ways. Either faith, all faith, is open to criticism. Or it isn't. It must be one or the other.

Dear Religious Person.
I don't respect your faith or that of anyone else. I don't see any particular need to harass anyone about their irrational, superstitions. As long as your believing doesn't negatively affect me or anyone else then I'm quite happy for you to believe anything you want. But don't expect me or anyone to comply with your attempts to impose your ideas on society. I will not accept your belief that your book is the sacred word of god. Or your assertion that when the priest speaks and waves his hands. The bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. If you want to discuss such matters then that's fine. But be prepared for the fact that I disagree and do not hold your sacred ideas to be true.

Regards
Skeptic Flyer

The burning of any book is a ridiculous waste of time and an affront to human history. Even though I am not a religious person. It would be absurd to just ignore the affect that religion has on the world. Holy books are valuable cultural icons that give us windows into human thinking and history. If religion disappears from our society. These books will become treasures of our past and not the vile symbols that some see them as today. I know there are some Atheists that would have all the religious books in the world destroyed. But I obviously disagree. It is not the book that is the problem in is the people.

To conclude. The correct response to this whole stunt would have been to ignore it. This is one man, leading a small group from nowhere in particular. If they want to go ahead and burn some of their belongings, on their own land, that's just fine. If they had simply been ignored. They would not have gotten the publicity they wanted and no one would have cared.