> I personally respect them for if I did not respect them then it would be an affront to freedom. First, please distinguish respect for the person from respect

> I personally respect them for if I did not respect them then it would be an affront to freedom. First, please distinguish respect for the person from respect for their beliefs. A person's beliefs (as long as those do not include the intent to harm others) should have no effect whatsoever on what rights they have, and on being accepted and treated as a human being equal to all other human beings in society. That is respect for the person. However, when a scientologist believes that Xenu's army dropped hydrogen bombs into vulcanoes in order to free the thetans from their bodies (or whatever exactly the story is, theology is not my expertise), there is absolutely no room for respect for that, it is bullshit and should be called out as just that. And there is one very important reason for that: Respect for those beliefs by society is one factor that keeps people trapped in these belief systems, which is very much the opposite of freedom. There are more than enough people who will tell you that they wished someone had shown them earlier how ridiculous and irrational the beliefs they were indoctrinated into were instead of validating it by pretending it was worthy of respect, because they could have started earlier to live a life free from a completely irrational fear of hell, for example. Respecting ideas that suppress people's free development does not contribute to freedom. > I think the problem is when mockery of such systems is disallowed. Well, yeah, but that is directly interlinked with the idea of respect for irrational belief systems. Mocking something is inherently not respecting the thing.