There is, in fact, nothing about religious opinions that entitles them to any more respect than other opinions get. On the contrary, they tend to be noticeably silly.
Interpretation
Religious opinions should be viewed like any other opinion, deserving neither extra respect nor ridicule.
H. L. Mencken's quote critiques the special reverence often given to religious beliefs, suggesting that they do not inherently deserve more respect than any other opinion. He implies that such beliefs can sometimes be as irrational or silly as less serious opinions, inviting a more critical and equal treatment of all views.
In practice
In a debate about freedom of speech, one might use this quote to assert that all opinions, including religious ones, should be open to critique.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
The human brain has evolved the capacity to impose a narrative, complete with chronology and cause-and-effect logic, on whatever it encounters, no matter how apparently random.
Men might as well be imprisoned, as excluded from the means of earning their bread.
there is no shortage of fault to be found amid our stars
Feel the delight of walking in the noisy street and being the noise.
Science will never be able to reduce the value of a sunset to arithmetic. Nor can it reduce friendship to formula. Laughter and love, pain and loneliness, the challenge of beauty and truth: these will always surpass the scientific mastery of nature.
I think we are blind. Blind people who can see, but do not see.
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