Criticism Of Religion Puns

I'm a bit worried about posting this question at all, because it seems to be really obvious to people that we should conform to this idea. It's taken for granted by people on all sides, it seems, and here I am, not getting it.

That is ... I think I get it with regards to specific scenarios. Let's say I'm criticising the Jehovah's Witness branch of Christianity. They do, for example, believe in the global flood, and Noah's ark, etc. Here it makes quite a lot of sense to attack those ideas on a theoretical level, explaining why they are wrong, as opposed to just saying that they are morons and go about my day. Right?

And from a psychological perspective, it probably isn't helpful, if I hope to change minds, to attack do both, and give my explanation, and follow up with JWs are morons for not getting this. Right?

But in criticising various religions, it seems like most atheists (of the religion-debating kind) is fine with both ridicule and jokes at the expense of the ideas. And also, on more serious notes, expressing vitriol for the worst ideas and practices.

This very quickly gets blurry for me. Especially if we're talking about practises, which most definitely aren't done by abstract ideas, but people.
In my view it's totally fine to criticise people for doing bad things, so I don't really blame anyone for this. But it conflicts with the high regard for only criticising ideas.
Is it only okay to criticise the idea of FGM, or can we criticise the people doing it?

Imo ideas themselves are harmless if they are not inside someones head, and when inside someones head, it matters what that idea means to that person, right? It matters if a person owns a rife for self defence, hunting, or school shootings, right? The idea of buying a rifle can have vastly different consequences depending on exactly what the idea entails.

I'd criticise a person, if I could know that he had the idea of considering school shootings. In fact I would stop him if I could know that he was going to do it.

So when is it really wrong to criticise people? Criticism, if deserved, isn't bad, is it?

Back to the Jehovah's Witnesses, and my criticism of the belief in the great flood;
wouldn't you say that my criticism of that was a criticism of people, of a belief that a particular group of people have in common?
If I say that "X is wrong", and "group Y believe X", then I can fairly

Just a little background about me.

I'm a white American and was never Muslim. I was sorta raised catholic but didn't give a fuck about it after I was about 14. I stopped going to Sunday mass around that time. I became an atheist around that time. My parents thankfully never shoved anything down my throat. Ever since I went through a sort of enlightenment if you would call it that I always thought it was stupid how even prominent atheists give Islam a free pass and say that it's a religion just like any other.

Anyway, now that that's out of the way, I have a rant. Today I commented on a Facebook post that Google made of Muslims and their stupid Ramadan. I said how Google and people in general never seem to want to see the very dark reality behind Islam despite all of the horrible things that have been done in its name and now there is a creeping theocracy of it around the world.

But right when I did this (yes I did get some positive reactions) but the comments really got under my skin. This one guy went to say that, judging by the picture of me on my profile, I look like the kind of white guy that would shoot up a school because I got rejected by a girl. This hits close to home since I've actually had trouble getting a GF throughout my life. I already suffer from depression, social anxiety and aspergers and this asshole put me in a horrible mood. Fuck him. Furthermore, he went on to say that I likely live in my mom's basement (that's a real clever one isn't it?). They also made fun of me for working in a grocery store. I guess they missed the part that I'm a broke college student who has to make some money. Sorry. I'll take my communications major with a secular understanding of the world than someone majoring in Islamic studies, judging by his profile that I saw. I'm also only 20 years old too, so I haven't yet done much and a lot of people my age are in the same boat.

But I heard another one that really brought my piss to a boil. This one other asshole said that people like Stalin and other communists represent true atheists. Yeah dipshit. I guess they never would've listened to geniuses like Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Richard Dawkins. Tell that to the ruthless dictators that seem to be the only kind of leaders the majority of the Muslim world.

Bottom line, in my community (white middle class American liberals) you can't criticize a religion without being labeled a racist bigot by your peers. And if you're an outside

Christopher Hitchens warned about 'islamophobia', and how it would be used to silence criticism of the religion, and years later, here we are. For example, this mass shooting at Christchurch is awful, and no innocent persons should be killed, but that doesnt suddenly mean that we stop criticizing Islam, which is what a lot of media outlets and countries are trying to do; use this shooting to stop criticism of Islam.

Basically the title. I was raised as a Christian but during my late teenage years (currently 21), questioned if I really believed any ot it. I cant logically explain it and have no reason to believe a god exists, there has not been sufficient evidence to warrant that claim. My mother is a firm believer and she is baffled by the fact that I dont believe in god and doesnt really question her own beliefs. Is this a common thing among us?

Edit: wow there were way more responses than I was expecting with many different ones. It seems like many of us are agnostic, which I definitely agree with, I wasn't claiming to know for a fact that no God or Gods exist and honestly I'm not sure if its something we can know. Thanks for everyone's different points of view and for all being respectful with each other

Everything gets to be critically evaluated once you see how easily our minds are manipulated into believing the unbelievable and defending the indefensible. I am regularly amazed by true believers utter incapacity to see even the slightest fallaciousness in their belief system as they confidently explain the sad plight of the exmo's deceived status. It's blows my mind when I encounter this. Then I think, "Oh My God, is it true, am I wrong?" I mean now I know how easy it is to be totally wrong about something important and not be able to see it - right? Then I'll do a quick inventory of the facts and conclude that I'm okay this time around, unless God is a galactic asshole who dicks around with mankind because he is bored (probably no). One thing that gives me hope is the fact that Im asking myself if I might be wrong. Definitely not a strong suit of true believers. This has led me down similar paths. "Is my politics wrong? Is/was my country wrong? Is this historical viewpoint valid, Am I a racist? Am I a sexist? Am I really as good a husband/father as I think I am. Is my wife right? Discovering I was so god damned wrong for so long has really woken me up and humbled me for that matter. And yes, I've discovered I've been wrong in some of these other areas too.

74 percent of all deaths by terrorism are due to Islamic fundamentalism*

Sharia Law is a hateful, patriarchal mess that ruins women's lives

Political leaders throughout the Middle East exploit the religion for power gain and corruption.

It is a broken belief system, like every other religion is, and should be done away with, like every other religion should. It is by the numbers deadlier than any other mainstream religion, and it should be at the top of the list for having the belief system relegated to obsolescence. Harming, discriminating, or profiling people on the grounds of them being Islamic is never right, but making criticism of the religion off the table is ludicrous. It is broken, outdated, and toxic, and I don't have to and will not sugarcoat that for anyone. My great grandmother was an Islamic refugee as well, who fled Pakistan due to religious turmoil and political turmoil.

*I had to edit that line because I misread my source. I initially said "74% of terrorist attacks...", which is inaccurate.

I was raised in a Catholic family and we were very excited that after the fall of Communism we were free to convene and practice our faith. After the honeymoon years some people quicker others slower realized that we got from one authoritarian system to the other and a lot of us left the faith for freedom.

It took me many years to leave it though, and I realized there were (un)conscious methods to shut down my critical thinking.

So for "just fun" I would like to assemble a list of these methods. These are the ones I know from the top of my head:

• demonizing and patronizing atheists and members of other religions: if you hate them already you won't learn how normal they are
• punishing asking questions as being "dumb" or "destructive": my smart friend was surprised in faith class that she couldn't ask questions; that wasn't an issue in school though
• instructing you to get rid of friends who are non believers: the master of this technique is Scientology
• prepping you up to love the scriptures before you read anything: the good book, the miracle!

... And what else?

Kinda devastated but still hopeful that truth is my main desire/destination. I fully committed 15 years of my life to gob and I feel so silly for not asking certain questions. My goal is to start on a path that will help me use logic instead of feelings.