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Former Preacher Dan Barker summarizes the ‘good news’ in less than two minuets. How many people would sign up if they were actually served up the truth about christianity as presented by Mr.Barker. I’m guessing that the cognitive dissonance would be too much for most people in the non-gilded form presented below as the god who loves/tortures is quite a stretch for most people.
The problem is that people do not get this version. It starts at a young age, children do not have the capacity to make rational decisions and have to rely on their parents for much of their information about the world. Being indoctrinated with the poison of religion diminishes the capacity of the human spirit and the intellect. The damage can be undone and many do embrace reality and rationality, unfortunately though, many do not.
I propose that religion should be framed as Dan Barker proposes because people would at least have a better idea of what they were getting into.
Damn…posting this straight up makes me “feel right” too.
All too frequently when the horrible/insane/incoherant practices/beliefes/consequences of religious dogma are pointed out, one hears responses that try to dodge the point rather than address it directly. One of the most common of these dodges takes this approximate shape: “Why do you even bother? It’s not like religious people ever do anything harmful in this day and age. And if they do, those harmful actions are never based on their religious beliefs. You’re obviously just full of hate for people not like you, so I now get to disregard your point.” Typically, believers will also throw in a reference to some other part of their religion’s teachings which sounds nice and lovey dovey. Can’t have a problem with lovey dovey, can you?
First, I want to stress that this IS a dodge. It doesn’t matter if I happen to be the most hateful person on the planet or if the idea I’m attacking isn’t currently held by anyone alive today. Nor does it matter that Belief Y is a good one, if we are discussing Belief X. In rational discussions, one must challenge the actual points presented. It is meaningless to quibble over the context around them or to focus on something else. Plunging your head into the sand is not a valid reasoning technique.
Alternatively, one could concede the point and admit that said dogma/practice/belief is indeed horrible/insane/incoherent. Then you could start a second discussion to try to argue that the dogma’s despicable nature doesn’t influence the world in any meaningful way. While this would be acceptable, it’s rare that a theist is will allow that any of their core religious ideas are either loathsome or inconsequential, much less both.
Much more likely, the theist will refuse to return to the main topic until this non-sequitor is dealt with. In either event, I would like to share ProportionalResponse’s reaction. The suggestion that religion today is harmless would be laughable, if it wasn’t so spirit-crushingly sad. Here is a link to the full image, should you wish to study it more carefully.
This dodge neither reflects reality nor addresses the topic actually under discussion. It’s a cheap diversionary tactic of the desperate and/or lazy. Users of this dodge may leave, give their heads a shake, and come back when they’re ready to say something meaningful.
“Why can’t we just get along?” A chilling refrain heard from mild mannered christians when they speak to atheists. I mean really if we just leave each other alone everything will be great right?
Perhaps we should ask Jessica Ahlquist about just getting along and coexisting peacefully. Ms.Ahlquist has had her docs dropped, threatened with injury and murder for her ‘crimes’ against the sanctimonious.
What did Ms.Alquist do to earn such opprobrium? She went to court to have a banner with a prayer removed from a public school. The separation of church and state in the US is constitutionally mandated. Ms.Ahlquist’s simply wanted her school to follow the law.
It is situations like this that make it hard to believe that the religious simply want to live peaceably with others that do not share their beliefs.
The children learn the hate and bigotry from their religiously besotted parents. Perhaps the above parent would react differently if it was their child being bullied and persecuted by an angry mob. But of course, empathy, compassion and tolerance are off the table when your delusional sky daddy mythology is challenged so it isn’t even a question….
Secular society is under threat from this avalanche of nuclear grade religious stupidity. I encourage my readership to distribute my post, or Practical Doubt’s and get as many eyeballs reading and minds thinking about the damage unchecked religiosity can do to a society.
The home run of the series. Theramin Trees examines and shows why belief in god(s) is unreasonable, and how rationally, he has become an atheist. Enjoy!
**update** Sorry for the duplicate link, now fixed with part three of the TT series.
Part two of the series examines conceptions of the divine that, when looked at logically do not make sense and can then reasonably be ruled out.
Theramin Trees a youtube author made a series of videos in response to the following questions.
This three-part series looks at:
1. What I believed when I was a theist
2. Concepts for gods I affirmatively believe do not exist
3. Concepts for god I believe to be unknowable
The first video, a trek into the author’s beliefs is fascinating as it is a tour of how his conception of the christian god evolved over time and where TT came to the conclusion that there was no God and that was the most reasonable hypothesis to hold given the current information.
Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow. :)
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
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