I never close a door on any other religion. Most of the time some part of it makes sense to me. I don't believe everyone has to chant just because I chant. I believe all religion is about touching something inside of yourself.
The American way was for commerce personal relationships and religion to be voluntary. No one was forced to participate in something he didn't want.
I am an atheist and if an atheist and a pope think the same things there must be something true. There must be some human truth that is beyond religion.
I grew up with the religion of 'Star Wars ' frankly. That's when I realized there is something bigger out there... and it's called The Force.
Religion creates community community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighborliness.
I have never made fun of religion. Religion is something I don't even want to mess with because I am really afraid of the clouds opening up and my being struck by lightning.
Haven't two hundred years of failed missionary work overseas taught anybody anything? You can't convert people to anything - whether religion or something as inane as our flicks.
If religion had a good purpose then man would have created something great. But we're man: we mess up everything. We mess up nature. We mess up God. We take what is given to us and make it into what we think it should be.
Beside all this I think there was something personal being Muslim myself who lived in the west I felt that it was my obligation my duty to tell the truth about Islam. It is a religion that has a 700 million following yet it's so little known about it which surprised me.
So basically my view is I don't want to support the exploitation of animals and within reason I will do what I can to avoid it but it's not like it's a religion for me. It's not like I consider I'm polluted if somehow some bit of milk or cheese or something passes my lips.