I, among many others, no longer have any tolerance for the lame excuses offered by those who deny science and refuse vaccinations. We finally have a chance to rid ourselves of a plague that has been with us for two years, only to be thwarted by individuals who justify their ignorance by touting absurd conspiracy theories. Their basic arguments can be summed up with two words they neither believe in nor practice. Freedom and religion. First, freedom isn’t free. It comes with limits in order to maintain order amongst chaos. One individual’s right does not usurp everyone else’s. Religion, or in this country Christianity, is not really what they trust. It’s about Trump, racism, hate, misogyny and fear of losing power. The whole concept of religious exemption has not always been the norm in America. “While resistance to vaccine mandates goes back 200 years, religious objections were not recognized by the law until the 1960s. Since then, the use of these exemptions has proliferated across the U.S. More recently, some states have proposed or passed legislation to limit the use of religious exemptions. And some public health advocates say it’s simply become a loophole and a relatively easy way for people to opt out of vaccine mandates,” says political journalist Andrew Meriwether, Some in the press have been arguing against calling out the unvaccinated, as in this piece by The Atlantic staff writer Ed Yong. Are we getting them wrong? All evidence is to the contrary. We have the facts and the science. They have an illogical hatred of Biden, liberals, people of color, changing demographics and follow fully vaccinated cult figures to their graves. No one should have carte blanche to simply disregard rules, because some people think they have a divine right to be unreasonable. “We have a fundamental idea in our nation called the rule of law. It means that everybody must obey the same set of rules. The idiotic concept of a religious exemption was conceived to give certain irresponsible people special privileges. The growing death count of the pandemic is just one of many proofs that demonstrate why the religious exemption is incompatible with a civilized society,” says Walter Rhein. Recently, a hospital in Colorado bumped a organ-transplant patient to inactive status after learning they were unvaccinated. A growing number of programs are also choosing to put unvaccinated people on a lower priority list for receiving these lifesaving procedures. The vaccinated amongst us applaud this. Why should they receive an organ, while at the same time denying science. Incredibly, fully vaccinated conservative politicians and TV hosts seem to have no issues with the deaths of their constituents and audience, both young and old. Fox “news” pundits continue their death rattle nightly, prompting viewers to refuse vaccinations and go maskless, as the death toll in this country approaches 750,000 people. They wear masks, as demonstrated at a Trump campaign rally last year. Trump looked incredulous at right-winged Fox “news” court jester Laura Ingraham, as she donned a mask at his rally. On a global scale, we are not more religious than any other country. There has been some unrest in Western Europe and Australia about vaccinations and masks mirroring the U.S. response, although with nowhere near the intensity as here. In the Eastern world, they are begging for vaccines to save themselves and their communities. In reality, the world will move on without the unvaccinated. They will either die or suffer illness and long-term complications from contracting the virus. Meanwhile, they are determined to take everyone down with them. We don’t need to feel guilt for those who refuse life-saving measures. We do and should care about those affected by it, through no fault of their own. This is Darwinism at play and only time will tell how this ends. As the late writer and professor Isaac Asimov once said: “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”