system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I see belief in God as a major intellectual weakness. CMV

I would love to be the understanding, accepting, arms-wide-open type who could honestly say "I respect all beliefs." But it wouldn't be true. I just don't. Belief in any of the Gods defined by major religions is a major intellectual copout, and I have trouble respecting a person who holds such a belief.

Philosophy is, in my opinion, the most important aspect of any person's being. It is literally a collection of the guiding principles by which a person chooses to live. How can I respect the intelligence of someone who chooses to just *not think about it for themselves*? Who chooses to let an ancient text with uncertain authorship or a hierarchy of clergy dictate their philosophy to them? This isn't even about whether or not God exists. It's just about how mentally weak I believe a person has to be to let their philosophy be dictated to them.

Please, help me see why I should be more accepting.

EDIT: Since a lot of people seem to be misunderstanding me, let me point you to this sentence above: "Belief in any of the Gods defined by major religions is a major intellectual copout." That is the core of the belief I'd like changed. I want to see why believing in one of these major Gods isn't a major philosophical weakness. Since I value philosophy extremely highly (as I said above), a philosophical weakness, to me, translates to a major intellectual weakness.

I've also amended my argument like so: this belief being an intellectual weakness only applies *in the present*, the reason being that today we have so much less reason (ignorance, societal pressure) to believe or at least feign belief in a major God than centuries-old men and women had.

Hope that clarifies my position.

EDIT #2: I think I need to clarify one more thing. Having "an intellectual weakness" does not mean that a person is stupid. A person can be very intellectually strong in one area and weak in another. My view is that belief in one of the major Gods or, I suppose, dogmas is a philosophical weakness. Since I value philosophy so highly, this is a major intellectual weakness. Also, again because I value philosophy so highly, I have trouble respecting someone with such a major philosophical weakness.

Just trying to be clear. I'd rather not get any more "There are super smart religious people therefore you're wrong" comments.
gpt
I think the problem here is that you believe someone who questions religion will inevitably come to the atheist conclusion.

But the fact is that a lot of intelligent people question their religion *and come to the conclusion that it's true*. Or at least that it's valuable and useful to them.

The ancient text, the uncertain authorship, the hierarchy of clergy, those get questioned every day. Often by the *most devoutly* religious. That's what started the protestant revolution, after all!