Discussion for article #231802
“there are no great religions. They’re all stupid and dangerous.”
I admit to having a lot of trouble disagreeing with that.
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Says a man whose simplistic atheistic fervor is tantamount to religion.
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Being an outspoken atheist is going to lead one down that path I do believe.
The only reason I don’t say stuff like Bill Maher does out loud is to avoid offending my religious friends. But I completely agree with the sentiment.
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Me also.
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Stupid ideas and beliefs should be called out early and often. And ridicule, while not a perfect foe for said beliefs, can be very useful.
Many faithful will only harden in their faith when presented with competing evidence, or simple debate/dialog – but ridicule and shame, while initially jarring, can be the seed the eventually grows into someone pushing their faith aside for good.
Go Bill go.
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Agree with Bill Maher. It’s time for unbelievers to speak out, shout, about the destructive force of religion.
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Clearly, the best way to fight back against absolutism is with absolutism.
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agree with the sentiments about religion, however, ridicule and shame can also lead to fury and violence.
But not dangerous. Atheists don’t bomb newspaper offices in the name of their religion. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard about an atheist bombing anything because his beliefs told him he should. You?
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My father pretty much shared Maher’s opinion of organized religion. However, I don’t think he would have gone on tee vee to stick pins in peoples’ eyes about it. Although, now that I think about it, maybe if he made as much money as Maher does from being provocative, he might have done so. But, at the end of the day, what does it accomplish?
I know we are supposed to have instant outrage but before you do tell me in a world with 1.6 billion Muslims how many do support it? Maher pulls the number out of his ass but most outrage is pulled out of a very similar place. What we know is that almost every majority Muslim country has blasphemy laws and most of them seem to have the death penalty. How are we to judge?
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What is the basis for Maher’s contention that “hundreds of millions of them support an attack like this”? Were they asked:
- Does someone who makes fun of the Prophet deserve violent death at the hands of the justified?
Or
- Should someone who makes fun of the Prophet realize they’re playing with fire?
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Don’t be like this guy.
What happened today in France is not radical or extreme...it's Islam. And Islam is different. And deadly.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) January 8, 2015
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He went Full Bachmann.
Never go Full Bachmann.
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Atheists, of which I’m one, have done plenty of heinous things, and religious people, including Muslims , have done some wonderful things for people. I hope and pray- so to speak- that the world loses its religious fervor, but the fault I fear lies not in religion, but in us.
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In general I figure people are entitled to anything that helps them get through hard times, but when they start dictating their religion to others it’s a problem. I’m becoming, if not a more militant agnostic, certainly one more willing to push back against so-called Christians who say with great conviction “This is a Christian country” and would cheerfully torch the Constitution and make this a theocracy. I’m not holding still for that bullshit, sorry uh-uh. I don’t respect anyone’s religion enough to let them rewrite history and the Constitution to suit themselves.
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I’m not particularly interested in whether religions are stupid or not. What does concern me is that, while I don’t tell religious fanatics how to live their lives, they feel perfectly comfortable telling me how I should live mine. And some are even willing to kill those who don’t comply. The same freedoms that allow you to practice your religion allow me to thumb my nose at it. You can’t have one right without the other.
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Sadly, as long as there are mental midgets adhering to American Christian Conservatism, then Atheists are going to have every Communist atrocity hung around their necks by the same aforementioned Conservatives – though anyone with a brain larger than a walnut can dig beneath the surface for just a few seconds and realize that’s complete bullshit and totally unfair.
Neither Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, or any of the other Communist mass-murdering animals went wantonly to and fro, slaying in the name of Atheism, carrying the banner of No God.
Instead, and any of the intelligent ones know this, Atheism was a trait of the Communist state only as a tool to repress organized religion as a point of unity and uprising – but nobody can tell me with a straight face that the whole damned Communist world was a bunch of godless heathens.
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Generalizations are the Devil’s playground.
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