Religious people are "special"

I’ve been doing a first aid course for work over the last few days. It’s great fun, and pretty cool to feel like I know what to do when somebody has a epileptic fit or whatever. I told the people at work that they should come see me when they have a cardiac arrest and I’ll fix them up.

Anyway one of the things covered was how you need to be sensitive to different religious cultures etc. The presenter gave the example of a couple of guys a few weeks ago who came in for a course, then at a particular time had to go into a little room for an hour to pray. I’m presuming they were Muslims, but who really knows these days; I’m probably just going to make up my own religion to get out of things.

So why is religion accepted as a way of getting out of things? Why should these people get to pass a course when they didn’t attend the whole thing? Shouldn’t they have to do the same thing as everybody else? As an atheist, could I get out of a couple of hours of the course without penalty if I asked to be excused so I could go study evolution?

How far does special treatment for religious people extend? Religious belief means you’re allowed to do drugs that the rest of the country isn’t; if you’re a Rastafarian, apparently weed is legal? Could I tell the court that my branch of atheism was enhanced by smoking weed and get away with it? Of course I couldn’t.

So what is it about religion that means you can get away with shit?

I apologise for my rhetorical questions; of course the answer is obvious. Religion is beyond question. You’re allowed free speech and to question everything, except a person’s religious beliefs; these we must respect no matter what. Of course only beliefs with enough followers are considered religions, so I can’t just make up some religion that means I get paid for an hour at work that I spend masturbating in some room by myself praising Jeebus. However people aren’t asked to prove their religious beliefs, so the option seems to be that atheists should start lying about their religion.

Next time a police woman tells me not to ride my bike on the grass, instead of making her clothes fall off, I’ll just tell her I’m a Buddhist and she’ll have to apologise for disrespecting my religious beliefs.

How about, instead of that, we stop giving special dispensation to religious beliefs and treat everybody the same? If you enrol in a course, and you have something important during the time that course is on, choose which is more important to you; the course or whatever your personal thing is. When a friend wants me to go out and have a few drinks, but I’m working, I don’t take a few hours off to drink beer; I make a sacrifice.

Is it asking too much to expect religious people to either sacrifice their superstitious rituals or to not commit to things that they can’t actually commit to? When I tell people my opinions on religion, they tell me I should be more tolerant and accepting. If that’s the case, why can’t I get away with the same things religion gets away with? If religious people want me to respect their religion or them, they’ll accept the same standards and rules that I have to accept. So long as people are treated in their own special way because of their ludicrous beliefs, I will oppose religion.

Religion and religious apologist are far less tolerant than I am. They readily support particular people getting special treatment that nobody else gets. All I support is equality for everybody and everything.