Atheist <> Anti-Religion

[botias]

I saw a little bit of a documentary with Richard Dawkins last night. He seemed to be saying that religion was harmful and a root of terrorism. To which I say :P Religion doesn't fly planes into buildings, people do.

The causes of terrorism are poverty, rage, hopelessness, vengeance, violence, xenophobia and bigotry. To me religion is a tool, like a 747, that can be used for good or ill. It's like a megaphone. A lot of people use it to amplify messages of peace, non-violence, and respect for oneself and others, other folks... not so much.

'Course I was always a Gould fan, not so much with Mr. Dawkins.

Comments

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes, also yes, and additionally, YES.

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything you say here.

I see this often also - religion gives some people hope/comfort in times of sorrow and trouble.

It also gives people justification for all sorts of bad behavior - which you pointed out more eloquently than I.

[rahirah]

Dawkins is one of those people who make me want to wear a sign saying "Atheist, but not like him.." He's just as much of an ideologue as the people he rants about.

[botias.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree. I'm sure many religious adherents of all stripes can say the same about the loudest and most strident of their faith.

I wonder if some of it is envy. "These comforts are denied me so I wish to deny them to others." If it's fear, I can understand that a bit. Whenever people want to base public policy on the mythology of their faith it gives me the willies, esp. since the US seems like it might be getting more prone that way rather than less.

[diachrony.livejournal.com]

Well, given that people create religion in the first place ... obviously it isn't the root cause of those bad things.

Religion is certainly used as an excuse to justify those bad things, however. It's probably the most powerful tool of justification-for-bad-behavior ever created by mankind. A hard-to-argue-with excuse to get away with every hateful impulse.

Probably because the entire concept is ultimately based on pure emotion, unbalanced by logic. The more logic comes into play, the less harmful religion becomes.