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Yes, we do mock religion here. Necessarily so.

Today on the Disservice we look at the burning question (heh) of knowing if your magical sky fairy is indeed the correct sky fairy to be spending your time worshipping.  I can think of a few possible responses from the deluded that always crop up when asked this question.

1.  The magic book says so.

2.  I know in my heart it true.

3.  How dare you even ask such a thing, did you want to burn forever for such blasphemy?

Argument 1 – “My magic book says so” is fairly easy to dismantle because the reasoning involved is circular.

Believer – The bible is infallible.

Skeptic – Errr..okay why?

Believer – Oh easy, because it says so in the bible.

Skeptic – *brain lights on fire….melts*

Arguing circularly does not advance your case on iota.  The idea we can trust the ramblings of mostly semi-literate shepherds from some 2000 years ago *should* raise some very pointed, very large, very red, red, red flags.  Red flags aside, every other religion can make similar claims about their magic book, so why is yours the one true special snowflake of the pack?  There are zillions of other reasons, but I’m just mentioning a few for now as we trundle on to the next point.

Argument #2 – “x” is true because I know it in my heart.”

    *kerchuk*  That was the sound of your rational mind being shat out the airlock.  Claims of veracity and truth require a corresponding amount of evidence to balance the nature of the claim.  The more grandiose the claim, the more evidence that is required to back it up.  You can claim in your heart all day your goldfish gives you hot tips for the stockmarket; but until you can get little Bucky to talk to someone else, your claim to the truth is worthless.   The same reasoning applies to religion – Jebus talks to you at night? Okay prove it.  He died and was resurrected? – Okay, prove it.  Buring bushes give advice and condemnation…errr… Okay pro..   You get the idea.  There is little to religious claims that are not open to skeptical inquiry.

Argument #3 – “How dare you offend me and my religion?”

This is a verbal dodge rather than any any sort of reasonable argument.  The religious hope to cash in on some of the social taboos about religion, the notion that we cannot criticize and mock religion is still strong in many parts of the world.  Bad news for people who don’t believe in magic.  Fortunately, the internet provides a forum where many people have the freedom to voice their thoughts without religious censorship.  It is through free marketplaces of ideas such as the internet that the folly of religious belief can be brought to light and properly mocked.

Mocking and deriding religion is a purposeful and necessary job of free thinkers everywhere.  Of course we can argue with the believers, but the dyed in the wool faithful have long ago given up their access to their critical faculties, so arguing only works to point.  Humour, comedic criticism, satire are all fronts that need to be pushed because religion is so strongly ingrained in our consciousness.  Religion belief needs to be mocked to the point where indeed it can be a “personal choice” and not talked about, as opposed to the social dynamo that it currently is today.

I have no problem with religion, but it seems like religion will always have a problem with me as true believers attempt to frame and remake the society around me into their nightmare reality based on the ‘teachings fom the Good Book’.  When religion starts poking its purulent head into matters of state and secular democracy and demanding people respect its bronze age wisdom, it is then I have a problem.

I know where I would lay in the above graph. Yet I continue, and hope others find the courage and conviction to follow in my footsteps.