The Harm Faith Does
Offline I got into a discussion of religion with one of my coworkers. He considers himself a typical right-wing theist and a Republican. He couldn't understand my belief that death is personal extinction, that when we die the lights go out forever. He began to grow upset that I do not believe in souls. He said that he believed he existed as some kind of energy before he was born, and would continue to do so after he died. "The one thing my mother kept drilling into my head as a kid," he said, "was that I was going to see my father again." I realized then why he was so upset at the idea that death is The End.
Earlier he'd asked me why I oppose Christianity. What problem do I have with meek, mild Christianity? I wanted to shake him when he told me his mother had brainwashed him into thinking his father wasn't REALLY dead. I'm angry with his mother, whom I've never met, for poisoning him. He's never dealt with his father's death; he's obviously still in the denial stage of grief. Death isn't really the end, because that would mean his father is really gone. Can't he see the damage that causes? Grief is a natural process for dealing with loss, but only when it's allowed to actually happen.
Tonight I've been reading a website detailing the harm of superstition, magical and irrational thought. No, the moderate and liberal theists don't tend to be the people who kill one another with exorcisms or with prayer instead of medical treatment. No, you moderates and liberal theists don't get a pass for it.
You are responsible for perpetuating the lies and superstitions that kill people and wreck lives. Your institutions pay no taxes while teaching that this life is worthless, and that death is a good thing (if you're saved). Some argue that faith offers comfort, but I see very little to be had. What comfort is there in killing one's offspring with prayer? What comfort is there in the terror of Hell? Answer for the harm you do, theists. This life is the only chance you get.
Religion is a virus.
Fight the infection.
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You might want to read some of Sam Harris for more on this. Hambydammit also had a great essay on this topic.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
whatstheharm.net is depressing enough without seeking out more essays on the subject.
This one, I presume?
Religious Moderation
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
That's the one.
Oh, but we can't "die" as such. We have eternal souls. We cannot just "disappear".
I'm an agnostic atheist who thinks you should love your neughbour.
Do you ever put multiple thoughts together? So far, everything you've posted has been just a claim. "This is the way things are." Have you ever spent any time thinking about how we know things? Do you know what an argument is? I don't mean a fight. I mean a series of connected statements intended to establish a proposition.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Of course we can disappear of the face of the earth, out of the books of history out of the memory of the universe etc, etc, etc. There are millions if not billions of people that history has forgotten, the potters, builders etc, throughout history which you have no clue who they are, what they did, how they lived their lives etc, etc, etc. When they died, a few years later they were forgotten most likely. Your showing your fear of death, that you want to matter, than you want to be remember, that you do not want to simply disappear, that is your fear, your fear of death, at least that's what your projecting, and you want your imaginary god to make sure you live on forever. Really who wants to live on forever? Live on forever being a slave to an insane human god? There are only 2 people that get remembered, the historically famous and the historically infamous. Pick on do a great deed or do the most vile deed. Otherwise, you will live, you might have children, maybe you will influence others, and then you will die. That's it that's all. Enjoy your time here, and stop worrying about dying, because no one gets out of this game alive.
Dying is against the third law of thermodynamics. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
I'm an agnostic atheist who thinks you should love your neughbour.
That's a law of motion, not thermodynamics you twit.
BigUniverse wrote,
"Well the things that happen less often are more likely to be the result of the supper natural. A thing like loosing my keys in the morning is not likely supper natural, but finding a thousand dollars or meeting a celebrity might be."
Yeah, I typed that before I read it. I was already fairly sure it was a parody, but you never know - look how idiotic some of the things Presup posts are. Poe's Law again.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
Let's say for the sake of argument that Death did fall into the laws of motion. I submit that Death would be the much delayed reaction to Birth.
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
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The fear of death or non-existence is a fear that all humans share (in various degrees). Because of our survival instinct we have some very strong primal reactions to situations in which we encounter death; basically a creature who isn't afraid of it's own mortality generally speaking would not live very long.
Some fundamentalist theistic sects seem to use fear as their main weapon to convert non-believers to their sect. This is done towards their children but also towards other theists and atheists.
However, this is not limited to theistic sects. Non-theistic organisations use these tactics as well. I can name quite a few environmental groups for instance, who have used fear of death on several occassions.
I'm not arguing against the use of fear as a way to persuade people to your cause but I'm not arguing for it either, I'm just saying that it's human nature to do so.
"I do not think it is necessary to believe that the same God who has given us our senses, reason, and intelligence wished us to abandon their use, giving us by some other means the information that we could gain through them."
- Galileo Galilei -