Religion is a certain belief that connects humanity to spirituality, and occasionally moral values. Religion teaches believers in many different ways depending on what religion the man believes in; Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc. People who choose to either believe in a religion or not should still be treated equally as others, because religion itself is merely a belief, and people should not be judged by their beliefs. As a Christian myself, I don’t mind if others judge me based on my beliefs as it is only a belief that someone can choose to believe in.

The article states that atheism has been growing a lot in Ireland over the past few years, and the Islamic religion has been growing significantly, thus making Islam the 3rd largest religion. Atheism itself is not a bad thing but it can be viewed in a negative way towards people who believe in different types of religion. Each type of religion has certain ways of worshiping and honoring their God, yet some people from different religions tend to disrespect the religion of others, and end up destroying or harming their religious beings (sacrilege) which is a great disrespect to them. Truly, atheism isn’t worth being judged because it doesn’t make someone any more or less of a person.

Even in South Korea there was a priest that suddenly started behaving strange, and broke into a Buddhist temple to destroy the walls of the temple, write swear words, and even pee in a cup where incense is used to be placed. This priest claimed that God told him to do these horrific acts. Some examples like these can show that religion can sometimes harm others instead of providing faith and guidance. So, this could be an explanation on how these people in Ireland are switching to atheism, as they don’t have to deal with these kinds of situations. If this event happened at the local mosque, church, or temple that you used to pray in you would be furious and angry about such rude behavior that has harmed your praying grounds, which shows you that religion can actually harm others. I personally wouldn’t like to change my thoughts and become an atheist, yet others who don’t want to participate or be affected by these problems might; people like me who are faithful to their religion wouldn’t change their beliefs no matter how bad something can change/affect them.

Religion has caused arguments, killings, and even wars because of different beliefs among different people. Even nowadays in Myanmar there is fighting between the Buddhists and Muslims, the Muslims are burning the houses of Buddhists and accusing the Buddhists themselves of burning their own houses, which shows us that religion has indeed caused severe problems. I personally am Christian and have witnessed fights over certain practices between different religions which can bring me to a conclusion that religion can give a single man faith, opportunity, and guidance, yet can cause wars and fights between others. Overall, atheism is not a bad thing for people, and can sometimes be a positive thing for them. No matter what people say about your religion, it doesn't matter because you chose that religion because it was your choice, not theirs.