No. It's a matter of education.
but your thought is also behind Sam Harris's recent book:
http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Landscape-Science-Determine-Values/dp/1439171211
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Is religion mostly a form of lies?
- Thread starter birch
- Start date
No. It's a matter of education.
but your thought is also behind Sam Harris's recent book:
http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Landscape-Science-Determine-Values/dp/1439171211
i see a lot of theists issues is a matter of wondering what's out there and whether they are alone, just like many people do.
the problem isn't that but the intolerance or prejudice against other religions as well as those who just don't think along a god concept.
it's as absurd as saying chinese food is real food and italian food is not the true one. they are both food but also different.
the problem isn't that but the intolerance or prejudice against other religions as well as those who just don't think along a god concept.
it's as absurd as saying chinese food is real food and italian food is not the true one. they are both food but also different.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
Yes. But I know the wink-wink nudge-nudge aspect of Christianity is even more prevalent in Europe. Many European Christians regard the fables of the Bible as really useful metaphors, not to be considered literally true, the way virtually all of the Hindus you meet outside of India feel about the fables of their religion. They don't really believe in a big blue elephant!Do you live in the U.S.?
Since the Religious Redneck Retard Revival began around 1980, there has certainly been an upsurge in literal religionism in the USA, which dovetails nicely with my people's proud scientific ignorance and their generally abysmal education in all subjects. But still there are lots of Americans who think the Ten Commandments and Jesus's teachings and all that stuff are nice guides to a good life, without actually believing in the tablets of stone or the Resurrection.
Never forget that the two most prominent symbols of Christianity in the United States are Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
But to get back to your original question, as to why religionists should be allowed to teach this ridiculous crap to impressionable young children: freedom of religion is enshrined in our Constitution. As a nation we made the decision that religion is a special kind of belief system, not subject to the same rules as racism, anarchism, pyromania or enthusiasm for dog fighting. It is actually the Law of the Land that everyone is free to teach their children the most preposterous explanations for why the universe is the way it is. (Although personally I think we went way too far when we exempted churches from paying taxes.)
The reason that even loudmouth atheists like me patriotically respect Freedom of Religion is that no matter how awful religion is, banning it always turns out to be worse. History is full of accounts of religions being treated with hostility and they always end badly. You're probably young enough that the Holocaust is just a chapter in your history book, but it happened during my lifetime. I'd rather live in the United States and put up with the Religious Redneck Retards, than live in one of those places. How many of us atheists are here today, because our grandparents or great-grandparents came here in search of religious freedom?
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indoctrinating impressionable children can have awful consequences. i know that a child was told a loved one was going to hell because they were not saved and the child worried 'sick' over them because they really believed. they were worried for their soul and that it would be damned to hell. how much more dire can it get than to get a child to worry for someone's 'soul' and to be that sad and depressed?
that is child abuse.
it's not religion persay that's what's so awful, but the nature of that religion and it's doctrines that make-up that religion.
that is child abuse.
it's not religion persay that's what's so awful, but the nature of that religion and it's doctrines that make-up that religion.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
Well we do have our limits. I can't find the clipping any more, but earlier this year a woman killed her son because he was not obeying all the religious rules that she tried to enforce. God told her that he would be resurrected after a short spell so everything would be okay in the end.. . . . that is child abuse. It's not religion per se that's what's so awful, but the nature of that religion and its doctrines that make up that religion.
She was convicted of first-degree murder and sent to a looney bin. But at her insistence her lawyer got the judge to add one condition to her sentence: When her son comes back to life, she will be released.
Who says we're not fair?
Well we do have our limits. I can't find the clipping any more, but earlier this year a woman killed her son because he was not obeying all the religious rules that she tried to enforce. God told her that he would be resurrected after a short spell so everything would be okay in the end.
....
This happens over and over......
There's this: http://articles.cnn.com/2004-04-03/justice/children.slain_1_deanna-laney-jury-rules-god?_s=PM:LAW
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/39/24/16.1.full