Religion is given too much respect

My opponent essentially agrees with most of my case. It's evident that when religion is taken as a whole, it is one of the most disrepected ideologies on planet Earth. I argue that religion is not given too much respect, and that's a good thing.Religion taken as a whole & What is religion?My opponent concedes these points, which help buttress my arguments.Internal Disrespect My opponent concedes this argument, which he should because it has ample evidence to support itself. Sectarian violence, warfare, and slander is common in many cities throughout the world. There are some cities like Glasgow, Scotland where the sectarian hatred, slander, and vilification is a non-stop parade of antagonism. Catholics stab Protestants; Protestants stab Catholics. Take this to the Middle East, and it is amplified in sectarian violence within Islam, and inter-religious violence between Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc. Religions defame one another; and thus, they disrespect each other. External Disrespect My opponent asserts that atheism is simply a lack of belief in a deity, but this is not true philosophically. Atheism is part of Naturalism, which is in turn part of the larger framework of Rationalism that began in Ancient Greece with the Milesian Philosophers and came in to full during the Enlightenment. Using this philosophically true position for atheism, we see that it is diametrically opposed to most aspects of religion, religious faith, and superstition in general.Continuing my argument, the rise of the New Atheists: Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett, has evoked in society a further disrespect of religion. Their books and speeches have been responded to by the religious with hate email, death threats, and claims of intolerance. That is, of course, in response to a fundamentally disrespectful tone, argument, and evidence against religion. It is essentially disrespectful to a religion for one to call it false, and that is exactly what the New Atheists and their contemporaries are doing.Atheism, Naturalism, and Rationalism are spreading, which further recedes the respect of religion and encourages a healthy opposition to the superstition and fatuity religion espouses. 19% of Americans are non-religious; that's up from 6% in the 1990's. 16% of the world is non-religious as well. This indicates a strong pressure on society to check the power and respect of religion. Furthermore, in most countries, the outside forces on religion have moderated it to the level of not being detrimental to human life. [1, 2]"The Internet, where religions go to die." Thunderf00t's famous quote rings true here. The Internet is buzzing with anti-religious rhetoric, memes, and YouTube videos of Hitchslapping. The Internet is accelerating the rate at which religions are insulted, degraded, and the rate at which atheism/naturalism/rationalism grow.Chick-fil-a. Check and mate.Rebuttal: The respect that we give to religion is detrimental to societyMy opponent states that it is "taboo" to question religious faith. I would disagree, because society is becoming more religiously moderate and more atheistic and skeptical. [3] Furthermore, there are many anonymous ways to point out the flaws of religious belief on the Internet, like on DDO for example. Even in Muslim countries, people are becoming more moderate and tolerant, as the world becomes more interconnected, educated, and skeptical. The point is that now, religion is fading fast as a failed attempt at morality, explaining the world, and societal ordering; it will continue to decrease as living standards, education, and interconnectedness increase.My opponent states, "When it is a social norm to respect religion, we are training society to accept the ignorance of others." While we may respect the person we like, it does not follow that we respect the religion. This religious trend has been interesting as of late: more and more people are expressing the position that they hate religion, but they love Jesus. They claim that Christianity is about a personal relationship with Jesus, not about tradition and church. Religion is viewed both negatively inside of religion and outside of it. Therefore, it is not given too much respect. My opponent concludes with, "Respect for religion is self-destructive and detrimental to society because it respects ignorance of others and stymies progress." However, he never describes in detail what he means by this; he is just asserting it. ConclusionMy opponent had to prove that religion is given too much respect, so much so that some bad ramification occurs. He did not prove either. Furthermore, my arguments demonstrated internal and external disrespect of religion when taken as a whole, which my opponent conceded. This was a good debate.Vote Con![1] http://www.usatoday.com...[2] http://www.adherents.com...;[3] http://3.bp.blogspot.com...;