Why Should I Care?
Posted on: July 3, 2008 - 1:51am
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Why Should I Care?
I fully expect to get my arse chewed off for posting this. That said:
1. What problems does religion cause?
2. What problems does religion cause for atheists specifically?
I'm not oblivious to ALL of the problems it causes. I've read stuff online and in books like the God Delusion, God is not Great, et al. But I would like a better grasp of the problem's scope than I have right now. Thanks for any help you can provide.
Okay, chew away.
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I don't really have a problem with religion. I have a problem with faith. Faith is the ability to have no evidence for something and still believe it is true. I can have faith that god told me to kill people, just as easily as I can have faith that a god doesn't want me to kill people.
Faith doesn't get correct answers cannot be solved without it. However it can just as easily point to things that are entirely incorrect with just as much justification. Which makes it is useless in understanding the world around us.
Sounds made up...
Agnostic Atheist
No, I am not angry at your imaginary friends or enemies.
Well first off, in my country and specifically in my area (Brampton, Ontario, Canada) religion doesn't interfer with my day to day life, we are not required to be religious for work purposes, to be elected or for most other day to day operation. Now the reason I am against religion is mainly due to my friends south of me (yes you americans have shown me a scare version of religion) and other nations around the world where religious majority have say in the day to day lives of people. I believe that everyone has the right to believe in what ever religious institution they wish, however that religious belief should not dictate the lives of others, only those of the believers, unless of course it puts them in danger to themselves or to others (their children for example with Jehova witnesses)
For example in Canada Dr. Morgentaler received the order of canada (the highest honor and award canada can give to it's citizens). Dr. Morgentaler was responsible for abolishing the abortion laws in Canada, as he believed it was a womans right to decide if she wanted to be pregnant or not, and not up to the state to make that decision. Now who is the most vocal opponent of both the abortion law and Dr. Morgentaler receving the Order of Canada? The Catholic church, the same church that condemns the use of condomns and allows the death of millions to happen around the world because they refuse to allow the use of condomns (hypocritical I say). Why should religious beliefs dictate what is good for the populations at large? The state/republic/nation should be neutral when it comes to religion and should make it's decisions based on what is good for the population at large, not what a specific holy text says what should be done.
Minor annoyances:
"In God We Trust" on the currency
Having to sit through religious riites at weddings and funerals
Having to explain why argument X (say, pascal's wager) doesn't work, and still continue to hear it, sometimes by the same people.
Televangelists fleecing the community.
Religious-based censorship of entertainment.
Moderate problems that directly effect me:
Organized campaign against science (stem cell research, evolution)
Political organizations that use religion to enact bad policies.
Family members who believe.
The prerequisite of Politicians to be people of faith means that many honest, intelligent people who could do a good job are denied.
Major issues that pose a serious threat:
Fundamentalists Christians/Muslims that HAVE KILLED and WILL KILL AGAIN for their beliefs.
The "end times" belief creates a serious problem with long-term planning for humanity.
The indoctrinated are often easily succeptable to being herded like sheep, such as in Nazi Germany.
The potentially self-fulfilling "Armagheddon" prophecy.
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful"
-- Seneca
Well since you've read entire novels on the subject I'm not sure why you'd need more.
Let me start with this: I see the same problem w/ religion that I'd see w/ any worldview that promotes dishonesty and ignorance as a...virtue !
- I have virtually no relationship with my family. Sometimes even the love of family and natural human morality become insignificant next to a love for fantasy and dogma.
In a shitty, twisted world.
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
George Orwell
Your question is set in the context of the first person singular so I assume you're saying that you are aware of the more global aspects to the problems presented by a large chunk of humanity thinking irrationally.
As to why you yourself should care, well that is a question only you can answer. Here's a few more questions that go along with it though;
Do I have a problem with irrational people, some of whom believe without foundation that my death brings me closer to eternal bliss, having power and authority over the society in which I live?
Do I have a problem depending on the same irrational people to maintain my health, giving some of them licence to operate on me, make life or death decisions about me, while simultaneously believing that the extinction of my physical being is not so bad since it allows my "soul" to move on to some fancied "other life"?
If I have decided to do something that I know not to be harmful, might even be beneficial or necessary to my well-being, affects no one except myself, and which I have decided to do based on careful and rational deliberation, do I have a problem with then being stopped from doing so and for no better reason than it might be deemed to have once offended a self-appointed and delusional moral arbiter from a largely illiterate and barely civilised semitic iron-age tribe?
Do I have a problem with the fact that something as innately dishonest as religious faith, given the extent to which it has integrated itself into the society I live in, acts therefore as a validation for dishonesty in general?
Do I have a problem with the fact that my only protection against such dishonesty being employed to my detriment, the law of the land, is seen by religious people as a threat and therefore something that they should control? Do I have a problem with the fact that they have enjoyed considerable success in so doing, and are not finished yet?
Do I have a problem with the fact that these people see no problem with assuming that they can indoctrinate my children in their irrational views, and consider fooling my child to the extent that my child is poisoned against rational thought (and even his or her own family and friends) a "success"?
If none or few of these things are of consequence to you then the answer to your question is that you hardly need to care in the slightest. But I would still maintain, whatever your views about accommodating religious faith, that you at least not go through life thinking rampant dishonesty and irrationality will never impinge on you to your detriment. It will - the power to do so is, after all, exactly what religion's most strident supporters crave, demand and execute when possible.
I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
Problem with "religion" in general ? >>> DOGMA
PATRIOTISM SEPARATION
Atheism Books.
This hits the nail on the head, at least from my point of view. And it doesn't even require end-times belief so much as simply believing that God will take care of everything.
There are essentially two options - either God is in the driver's seat or we are. If humanity is in charge, then we have to take responsibility for our actions. Of course, it's much easier to shift the burden of responsibility onto an invisible man in the sky than to get off your ass and do some problem-solving.
Nobody I know was brainwashed into being an atheist.
Why Believe?