Preach to the choir Religion |
Crux of the matter |
Speak of the devil |
An act of faith |
“”Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned: yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.
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—Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia.[1] |
Freedom of religion is the right to worship (or not worship) in any manner you choose.
Freedom of religious worship is included as a specific case of freedom of expression and freedom of speech. In general, what a person believes doesn't actively harm others, yet holding and espousing any number of beliefs may expose that same person to persecution. To address this, freedom of religion is a protected right.[2]
See also: Freedom from Religion Foundation
While there are some (okay, apparently quite a lot) on the Religious Right that disagree, freedom from religion (e.g., the ability to be an atheist, secular humanist, and so on) is an integral part of freedom of religion. This is because without the ability to choose to not partake in religious activity, the free choice of religious activity becomes meaningless. Freedom of choice requires informed consent, and a cornerstone of this is the ability to withdraw consent — otherwise it's coerced, and therefore not free consent. If the option to not be religious is removed, then being religious becomes effectively forced and the power that the belief has (because it was chosen out of all others, including the "N/A" option) is diminished.
There are multiple problems with the concept of freedom of religion, and how far a person's freedom of worship should be protected: