Case in point...Secularists in olden days were standing up to genuine

tyranny...as in being burnt alive for translating the bible sort of thing.

If you want to play hard done by get your facts right...

Could anyone really regard my statement, including the words "[that]....sort of thing", as intended to be taken as factual? Hardly....It's called rhetoric mate...I was contrasting the real struggle against combined church & state tyranny with the pathetic non-issues of todays "freedom-fighters". Most reasonable people would regard the fight against execution for religious conscience an early example of secularism even if it wasn't called so by name.

again check your facts before making an idiot of yourself...oops too late!

Oh dear oh dear....you should really check your comments before posting. I actually stated up-front that I made my example up as an illustration.

They broke the law...they displayed xian bigotry and gross homophobia and got their sorry 'souls' into strife...quite right.

Good people my case rests. Thankyou strangebrew for quite literally demonstrating the reality of my argument. Whether they broke the law is in fact irrelevent to this argument. Presumably many poor souls actually really did break some law or other associated with heresy before paying the ultimate (legally sanctioned) price. You illustrate nicely the problem...they are to be punished for what they think and feel...xian bigotry, homophobia...your words, interesting choice!!!.....exercising conscience in their own home is what they were doing not that it is any business of anyone elses...I very much doubt it was a limited company they were trading under...not that it greatly matters considering it was their own private space. You want the state to interfere in areas where no true secularist would want it putting its colossal snout.