A lot of people believe in god

“Do you realize what you’re saying is offensive to 1.6 billion people around the world?” is often a question posed to anyone critical of Islam. It’s used frequently even by intelligent Muslim scholars when debating issues such as sharia law or killing people over cartoons. But the first problem with this question is what do the numbers of believers have to do with validating a claim or acting as if you hold some sort of truth? I know the intention of using this statement is generally a “let’s all get along” approach. Basically stating that people should turn a blind eye to actions which they feel are abhorrent for the benefit of community cohesion. Fine. I won’t run into a mosque or a church and yell that all the people there are idiots. In fact I don’t really care about what anyone believes. I do however care when people begin using texts from the stone age as a Science textbook, or as some sort of guide as to how society should operate in the 21st century. So personally I find all religion completely silly. I couldn’t believe any religion if I tried. So when asked about Sharia law, or whether or not I believe the world was created in 6 days by a benevolent god I will simply state my opinion. To disagree with me is to undermine community cohesion and should be avoided. So do I realize that my beliefs may be offensive to 1.6 billion muslims? sure. I’m an atheist, my beliefs are offensive to about 5.5 billion people. The ironic thing is that the one thing the world religions agree upon is that there is a god, and that Atheists are wrong. They conveniently forget that their beliefs/gods actively cancel each other out. This sort of disillusion is at the heart of belief. They realize that the true enemy is those who question god all together and they band together to protect the glass house of belief they’ve built around themselves.