I am an atheist myself but I respect other people's right to their religious beliefs.
I may not always respect the belief itself, of course. That depends on a number of variables about the belief, with a huge subjective element on my part.
However, I will judge you by how you behave towards me and other people, rather than whether you believe in God, or that every pool and glade has a genius loci, or you have a sophisticated spiritual concept of the unity of the universe and the godhead.
In theory, I also respect everyone's right to show legitimate disrespect towards the religious views of others. Freedom of speech is important, as are freedom of religion and freedom from religion.
However, I have no respect for someone choosing to offend other people's sensitivities just because they can, whether they are stepping on a picture of the BVM, or burning the flag, or urinating on the cenotaph. I have no more respect for those provocative actions than I do for the people who react to them with violence and hatred.
Setting aside the literal truth, or otherwise, of religion, I think that all societies, all communities, have things that they hold sacred. Shared veneration of a place, or symbol, or a story provides an essential social bond.
To some extent, it doesn't matter what the thing is that is venerated, or whether it is real or imagined, or physical or metaphysical. It is the act of veneration that is important.
I would not deface a picture of Jesus any more than I would desecrate a cemetery, step on the grave of the unknown soldier, or fart loudly in the minute's silence for a recently deceased football manager. I will speak freely against the irrationality and excesses of organised religion, but I do not feel entitled to gratuitously insult beliefs that are important to people.
At their worst, anti-blasphemy laws can impose a climate of fear and enforce conformity, and I guess we all see that as a bad thing. However, at their best, anti-blasphemy laws simply protect what the community holds sacred, and that can be a good and necessary thing.
I am atheist and I believe that when we die, we are gone, but nevertheless, for the last 40 years I have quietly marked the anniversary of Buddy Holly's death: a singer who died before I was born. I also sometimes quietly nip down to the local churchyard to tidy the grass around the memorial slab to my wife's late first husband: a man I never met. Showing respect never does any harm. Disrespect for its own sake can be destructive.
