yes, fall on that one little word, to make the article sound safe. That is why I refeared to the articles symantical value. The author acts in a way to make political correctness seem important to him, then he gougess nearly baseless facts into the article.Originally Posted by Jebus
Religon by no means creatse closed mindedness. Beliveing outside the realm of what simple science tells us is far from it. Those with belifs, granted, are usually a bit close minded to the beliefs of others, but this seems like a hypocritical stand point for an out spoken athiest.I agree with a lot of things in this article. Religion tends to breed close-mindedness. Heavily religious people tend to see the world as "I'm right, and the rest of those godless heathens are wrong." This in turn leads to violence, and other violent crime.
With me, it is not the "Godless heathens" that are wrong, it is thouse whom live a corrupt life, much as you would probally say is evil, I am sure. The teachings of Jesus, are very prone to find the peaceful solution, and yet there were plenty of wars using the lords name in vain. It is not the religon, or its influence on people. It has, and will always be peoples corrupt influence on a religon.
You can really say this about any government or any assembly that needs leadership. People will follow a cause they feel is just, or are comfortable with (on synominous with thier ideals). Thus rendering this argument completley useless. Also, the sheep analoogy is kinda humerous, as it is used alot in Christianity. Not to say that your metephor shares the same with Jesus's. (Hilarious, I mistyped Jebus there)Religion also breeds a kind of "sheep" instinct in people. Once they're pacified enough by their religion, they will believe just about anybody who comes along claiming to be speaking in the name of their respective god(s). Which once again can lead to violence.lol
I say the same for science. It is, afterall, a near religon for the faithless. There is no "belive me, god damnit" outlook to religon. It is a way of life that requires faith, but to put it in such a primal manner is just insulting. I see more hostility in the anti religous banterings of athiests than any peice for religon. For every slander that throw on religon, there is an equal slander to any ladder of power.All I know is that religion is a serious hindrance to learning and free thought, due to its "Believe me, god damnit" outlook. And I do feel that it is a problem for a civilized society. A kind of throwback to our ancient roots for whenever we couldn't figure something out, a "god" did it. You'd think that in a reasonably intelligent society (hahaha, I know, just bear with me here) that we could just dispose of such an idea, and move to more rational ideas. Religion is not needed for a moral basis. It's irrational to just harm somebody, or to rape somebody, or to steal. Just because someone's an athiest doesn't mean their immoral. Religion is a completely uselss construct meant to give certain people more power over the weak minded.
I will end with a verse followed by my own quote: "For God sent his son into the world, not to condemn, but that the world might be saved through him" If only other idealistics were that peaceful in conveying thier ideas.And, for fun, I'll end on a quote by Voltaire. "Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
