Thursday 1 August 2013

The surprising allies in the struggle towards enlightenment.

There are two ways to draw people towards a given proposition, show why that proposition is superior to the alternatives. Which Carl Sagan did poetically, bring awe and understanding to the origins of everything putting in perspective great human struggles showing them to be miniscule in relation to the universe we live in.

The other technique, is rather difficult to pull off without looking biased unless you're on the inside. And that technique is the technique of making to competition appear foolish, insane, bigoted and unreasonable.

For an atheist like myself  to say religion is foolishly superstitious, may appear to some be arrogance or sour grapes, but no one can sell the message like Pat Robertson:

Pat Robertson On How To Handle Demons In Your Home: 'If It Was Me, I'd Burn The House Down'



When we say religion is judgemental, we just hate Christians. Even though none of us seriously would consider rounding Christians behind an electrified barbed wire fence. However Charles Worley can really bring home the message that religion is a hateful enterprise:



If I were to say religion is dehumanizing, I might be accused of saying religious people are less worthy of respect or dignity than atheists, but Linda Harvey can really push the message of intolerance in religion across and still be held in high esteem by other Christians.



Harvey's critics have noted that there are no christian children and that they have to be taught to be Christian. and are not legal persons under constitution. Behaviours that civilizations and society have said a big "no" to cannot be endorsed in law. For example...



We atheists like to defend the rights of all people to fair treatment regardless of sex, wealth, gender, nationality or religion. Indeed we abhor domestic violence, but here we have someone saying wife beating is ok, and exactly to how do it. As described, such behaviour may not cause overt physical harm but still results in psychological harm and distress for this reason and the implied infantilism of women many this see this as unacceptable...



This might look like beating up on Muslims, it is not check out this Catholic.... And bear in mind some fundamentalist Christians have defended right to the beating of wives by husbands to "get the demons out". The Bible also contains verses the say no amount beating is worse than hell so children can be beaten as much as the parents like.(Proverbs 23:13-14)



We all know abusing children is bad, but for some Christians it is a business model...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/09/tracymcveigh.theobserver
from The Daily Telegraph


The millennial generation are seeing religion more for what it is and abandoning it at a rate that has not been seen before. Without the tireless invocations of bigotry, hatred and abuse, they might easily be lead to believe religion was a good thing. We know many have tried over generations to convey that impression.

Now you might describe Pat Robertson, Linda Harvey, Charles Worley and countless others as ass-hats and witch hunters as evil child abusers. However there tireless self sacrifice means institutional religions will follow their reputations into the long drop of history. And for that we can be truly thankful.

So thanks guys for the help, we could not make ancient superpositions look any worse than it already is, and there is really no point in trying.

See Also
   The Friendly Atheist on CNN about why Millennials are losing their religion.

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