Does the 9/11 and other conspiracies hurt atheist claims?
Offline Now we all know about the 9/11 conspiracy. There are others such as Alqauda database, aaron ruso, the zeigeist movement, the American NWO But the main one may be the 9/11 conspiracy, in short, "America did 9/11 to go into the middle east to kill innocent people steal resources" and so on. Thus, all these conspiracy videos about NWO, illuminati and money appear, and then there are videos that state every radical islamic attack is false, and that the Al Qaueda (sp) and Taliban are all just boogeyman, non existent things, and America is killing no one." Such advocates of this are Mos Def.
However, no matter your views on the conspiracy, figure this. Many of us atheists will often argue why religion is bad, and perhaps the number one reason is the violence and safety issues. From the Spanish inquisition, to cults. I believe Richard Dawkins in several of his documentaries or books has actually stated that religion can instill an infallible courage to get people to believe in harming or killing someone, or killing themselves (and other people) for a God. Mainly, Dawkins (and several other atheists) have concluded that the living evidence of violence in religion exists even today in radical Islam.
However, if the claims made by conspiracy theorists, that there actually aren't any Taliban or Al Qaueda, and it is all made up by the media to make good Muslims look bad in the name of "American World conquest". Every other attack that had been credited to them from the UK subway bombings to the hotel in India. That would mean that there are no radical muslims, or anything about Muslims wanting to spread a Muslim empire.
Personally I see contradictions in this as American and other Ally soldiers are being killed by this so called "boogeyman"
In conclusion, it would mean that there is no violence in Islam and Dawkins and others have no say. IF their theory was correct.
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I don't think it will hurt the atheist movement.
The reason being is that what matters is whether religion is true or false rather than if it is good or bad.
So the cause of religious terrorism is irrelevant to whether religion is true or false, ergo whether it's the beliefs that drive their terrorism or something else or even if there wasn't any religious terrorism shouldn't hurt the atheist cause, because the atheist cause should be focusing on whether religion is true or false, not whether it's good or bad for their arguments against religion.
To put it simply, we have overwhelming evidence that religion is false and irrational, the "evidence" atheists present of religion being bad is circumstancal at best.
Maybe in the long run it helps. Because the conspiracy theorists help prove our point that the great plague on humanity is believing something without evidence. Whether it is religion or conspiracy theories, they are both dangerous and very harmful.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
True but if one major irrationality is out of the picture (such as violence), it really lessens the idea that religion is all that bad, at least in terms of ideas that can be presented against it (such as how Richard Dawkins uses it)
I like this.
Why is violence irrational? Humans have been using it for millions of years to attain wealth, power and sex. In a competitive world, there is no other option if one is to survive.
I would say violence is undesirable, but the world would need to evolve to where all humans have a 100% cooperative relationship instead of the highly competitive one we have now. That ain't gonna happen with religion around as the opiate of the masses. Religion must go first before war, violence and poverty could be eliminated.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
I mean using a religion as the justification to commit violence. Instead of saying "I did this for more money" they may say "I did it cause god said so" or so on.