Religious Tolerance is a worthy cause

Thanks for responding Lightkeeper! My opponent raises a few interesting points that at first glance seem to weaken my argument. However, I do not even need the full amount of characters to explain why his arguments are invalid. My opponent's first point is that I have engaged in what he calls "hasty generalization". However, ‘hasty' does not apply, as I have spent a good deal of time considering this issue. ‘Generalization', though, is accurate. I am stating the general practice of tolerating religion is not morally correct. As it appears that I was not clear enough in my original contention: Tolerating religion of any kind is immoral because religion itself has proven to be extremely dangerous. As I stated in the second round, I decided to focus and use examples from the two religions that are currently most impactful on our society. To further clarify: Religion tolerance is immoral because every religious doctrine I have encountered (and especially those of Islam and Christianty) validates and authorizes vile and perverse behavior. Even one of the most palatable religions ever to exist, Buddhism, has had violent sects. This content MAY or MAY NOT be followed by every member of that religion. However, the simple fact that religion permits such behavior means that people can do horrible things and feel perfectly fine about it, because their religion says it's OK. Because of this, entire empires and nations have committed and continue to commit atrocities because their religion endorses them. As I stated, I'm sure that there are religions based entirely on peace and love with no evil content in their texts or preaching. But these are not the religions we are being asked to tolerate – these are not the religions with the most followers worldwide. These are religions small enough that I have yet to hear of them. They are, to a realist, insignificant. In the real world, tolerating these peaceful branches of religion is an endorsement of religion as a concept, and because religion is such a dangerous thing, it is immoral to tolerate even these religions. In a perfect world, where everyone had each other's best interests in mind and only formed religions that further the best interest of mankind, I would not only tolerate it, I would endorse it. However, this world is far from perfect, and the religions that imperfect Man has formed illuminate and encourage some of the darkest, most divisive and manipulative facets of our psyche. My opponent rightly claims that there is no such thing as a universal scale of morality in regards to certain issues. However, I am simply claiming that religion should have no part in determining what is and is not morally correct. After all, the morals found in religion are simply someone else's ideas attributed to a God or other religious figure. These morals should be considered no more universal than my own are, but because of religion, millions of people share them. Without religion, society could think more critically about what actually is and is not moral, rather than simply accepting what a text written by a human being ascribes to a deity. My opponent points out that Poland and Australia have different ideas about what is and is not moral, and that is demonstrative of the beauty of individual thought as opposed to religious espousing. Imagine the intelligent discussion we could have about morality if everyone thought for themselves! The fact that we are able to hold this debate without involving a religion's idea of right and wrong means that we can openly debate even the definition of morality, something that would be nearly impossible if our religion defined it for us. In response to my opponent's utterly ridiculous claim that I am advocating a literal war against religion, I would like to state my absolute opposition to this idea. Endorsed violence is one of the major reasons that it is immoral to tolerate religion. Therefore, it would be totally hypocritical of me to advocate war. For my opponent to put such foul words in my mouth is in poor form. In fact, the debate at hand does not concern an actual solution to the problem of religion – rather, it is simply a discussion about whether or not it should be tolerated. I would be very interested in debating solutions at a later date, however, so please let me know after this one concludes if you are interested.