We don’t respect other inherently irrational beliefs, such as those held by the mentally ill. I fail to see why we should respect the religious beliefs of other people.
(This is not a debate on the merits of religious belief per se)
I think the problem is not that the beliefs are disrespected, but that the disrespect is sometimes expressed toward the person holding the belief, rather than the belief itself. We may disrespect the irrational beliefs of mentally ill people, but it’s unkind and unnecessary to disrespect the mentally ill people themselves.
You may not respect the beliefs, but it is ignorant not to respect the people who hold them. People who are mentally ill can’t help their ‘beliefs’, BTW.
You seem to discount the fact that your assessment of what constitutes ‘irrational’ may be considered completely irrational itself, by, for instance, me. But you’d expect to be respected for your own irrational belief, right? And of course you think it’s rational - else you wouldn’t call it so. Well, people who may consider other things rational that you don’t are just the same way. Everyone has his own measure of logic.
Unless you accept disrespect for your own beliefs, you need to accord respect to others for theirs.
Also, if you want people to listen to you (including your arguments against their beliefs that you view as irrational), it is necessary to conduct yourself in a civil manner. Sometimes you just won’t get anywhere if you go in with all guns blazing.
AS others have said, you don’t have to respect the belief in order to treat the person who holds it with the basic respect we should show all people.
“I’m sorry I don’t agree” is a more respectful response than " Well that’s idiotic"
Here on the SDMB we’ve had lots of discussions about religious beliefs and we have our share of atheists who eagerly dismiss believing in anything without evidence as ridiculous and irrational. Often a condescending and slightly superior attitude is present.
Without exception in any ongoing discussion it has been shown that these very atheists also believe certain things without any real solid evidence. Similar to the people they criticize they accept as fact things that have emotional appeal for them but little or no solid evidence. They claim their conclusions about things are the only logical and reasonable ones even when logical and reasonable people disagree with them and go into detail explaining why. That’s also a trait they share with those they criticize. It’s an interesting phenomenon really. IMHO because we as humans share this mix of rational and irrational, logical and emotional beliefs, then we should try to treat other individuals with respect if there’s a discussion even when we don’t understand or agree with their position.
Plus, it keeps you from getting punched in the nose. It’s easy to be a rude SOB online because you needn’t worry about physical confrontation and a lot of people either forget their manners or else enjoy wallowing in a freedom they aren’t allowed in real life, but, back in the meat world, they would never say, “Wow, that’s total bullshit!” because they know that, true or not, it was likely to get them beat up. So, basically, you feign respect for beliefs you don’t share or even find silly because you know that, if you don’t, you will get beat up and all your friends will say you deserved it for being a jerk.
I think this is a disingenuous way to start a debate on respect for religion. Your op has effectively started the discussion with religious belief = mentally ill. I realize you did not directly say that, but your op implies it strongly.
Out of politeness, it is not good to insult someone’s beliefs. What I do not understand is why some of the religious think their beliefs entitle them to extra protection. We are having a sidebar conversation about this currently in a pit thread.
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I propose that insulting a set of religious beliefs is no worse than insulting any other strongly held beliefs. I had faith in two things in this world and both were shaken and destroyed in the last 4 years. Even if they were not destroyed, I would not expect extra courtesy towards my beliefs. So please respect someone else belief the way you want your own respected. It does not matter if we are talking about Jesus, Atheism, Mohammed, the LDS, Scientology or my lost faith that the US stood for justice and held the lantern of freedom up for the world to follow out of the darkness.
Jim {I am not religious, in fact I annoy some of the religious posters}
Even if there were no affirmative reasons to respect any religious beliefs, I wonder if the OP thinks anything would be accomplished by disrespecting them.
Geordi: “Because you just can’t rely on the plain and simple facts. Sometimes they lie”
Data: “The can lead to the wrong conclusion, but they can not lie”
Geordi: “Yeah, so what do you think Data? Is he a defector or not?”
Data: “The facts to-date would lead to the objective conclusion that he is not”
Geordi “I don’t know Data, I think we’re gonna catch the Romulans with their pants down on Nelvarna III”
Data: “With their pants … ?”
Geordi: “A metaphor. Catching them in the act”
Data: “Because you gut tells you ?”
Geordi: “But you can’t always go with your gut either. It’s a combination”
Data: “…”
Geordi: “Let me put it this way Data, these human instincts that confuse the hell out of us, that make us second guess ourselves, well we need them. We need them to fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle because we almost never have all the facts”
Data: “So a person fills in the missing pieces of the puzzle with his own personality, resulting in a conclusion that is based as much on intuition and instinct as on fact”
Geordi: “Now you’re getting it”
If you can get your head around this point, you’re one step closer to understanding why people love to argue.
Also, unless you intend to cut yourself off from society and it’s benifits, and I mean fully, it would be wrong not to accept the standards layed out for Civilization. Which include treating your fellow humans with respect because of our differances, not despite them. One man alone can not fight ignorance, and many men need only fight their own ignorance.
My dictum is that if you use your religious beliefs as political weapons, you lose the protection afforded to them by the principle of tolerance.
You could just as easily argue that a mother’s love for her child is an inherently irrational belief and not respect that. Go on, tell that new mom her kid’s ugly. Ditto the beliefs of any number of sports fans, play-goers, readers, foodies, etc.
Although I am an ordained minister (ULC Modesto CA) I don’t believe in God in any shape or form. Please let me know some of the things that, as an atheist, I believe in without “any real solid evidence.” Ideally these will be things that I believe in for their “emotional appeal”. Don’t be shy make the list as long as possible.
The same way you expect people to respect your disbelief, is the reason why you should respect others’ religious beliefs. As for belief in the irrational, from a purely scientific standpoint, there is no way for you to disprove the existence of god. You know there is evolution, you know there is a universe, you know there was a Big Bang. But you don’t know what was before the Big Bang. You don’t know what created the universe. You don’t know if it was always there. How can you rationally state there is no such thing as god? How can you know that this god didn’t indeed use religion to spread it’s message? In my opinion, absolute disbelief can be just as irrational as any religion out there.
I don’t really see much evidence that we do respect the religious beliefs of other people, even on this board.
I understand and support your right to hold those beliefs, but the belief itself? Why should I? I don’t even respect my own beliefs.
This doesn’t mean I go around insulting people. I can believe that your beliefs are pure nutjobbery and, as long as you do your job and don’t push your crazy ideas off on others, that’s perfectly fine with me. I can’t imagine any reason I should respect the beliefs of any particular church of which I am not a member - I respect individuals and their actions, not beliefs.
I don’t respect all religious beliefs. Some religious beliefs I hold myself, and others I don’t hold but still respect. And the reason I respect them is that they are held by people, among whom are some who are the exact opposite of mentally ill. If someone who, to the best of my perception, is mentally healthy and intelligent and wise and of good character, is guided by some strongly held religious beliefs, then I figure that there must be something about those beliefs that is worthy of respect.
The kind of religious beliefs that could guide and inspire someone like, oh, say, Martin Luther King Jr., to pick just one example, are nothing to scoff at even if they are mistaken.
There is a saying in the law: You are entitled to your own opinion. You are not entitled to your own facts.
If someone tells me they have faith in their religious beliefs, I figure they are entitled to them. If they tell me they know their religion is true, I have no respect for it.
Round here we tend to a bit careful of not pissing off people who think a bit differently.
It is something like ‘while I disagree with what you say, I will fight for your freedom to say it’
I dunno, it is just a guess here, not knowing you at all, but do you believe that you love anyone?
That “love for others” (lover, child, pet, humanity, etc.) is something special and good (and more than merely stimulus-response) appears to me to be a very commonly held belief without any “solid evidentiary basis”, and one based purely on “emotional appeal”.
A belief I happen to share - while I am not a believer in the existance of any god, I have a great respect for those religious people who do and are able to use their convictions to live a richer and more fulfilling life. I don’t think that reason and logic are the be-all and end-all for ways to properly consider matters. Consience, emotion and intuition also have a respectible part to play.
To my mind, each form of thought should act as a check on the others, and the proof is in how people live nad behave. A person who begins to behave irrationally and disfunctionally as a result of religious beliefs need not expect those beliefs to be respected; similarly, a person who is absolutely logical and rational, but who behaves in a manner ignoring the interests and well-being of others around them, should not have their point of view respected, either – the first is deficient in logic and the second is deficient in concience and emotion.
As to to the question in the OP - ultimately, I would hope to treat those I disagree with as I would expect to be treated by them: with courtesy. Moreover, like most people I would on occasion wish to convince others of my point of view, and very few are convinced by insults and belittling. Indeed, such behaviour seems to me to be somewhat tending to be deficient in the manner outlined above - that is, by their behaviour, they indicate that their point of view is not worthy of respect.
So they should only voice disrespect of my religious beliefs if I made it known that I voted on an issue based on those beliefs? 
Those are very good and strong words with which I strongly agree. However, the question comes down to where you draw the line. I draw the line at the KKK & Neo-Nazis as an example.
Others draw the line at insults to their beliefs. Would you fight for any speech at all? Do you have a line where you would say, too far?
Jim