"It appears as though our differences apply mainly to religion or the lack of it. As stated from day one this has been my greatest worry about religions. They divide, confuse and lead to conflict. Islam against Christianity, vice-versa, and all of them against Atheism. We can see this trouble brewing in every corner of the world, people are quite willing to blow themselves apart and create mass murder and suffering in the name of religion. It happens daily in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and sporadically around other parts of the globe. Nuclear holocaust inspired by religious terrorism is a credible and evident danger. Even here among colleagues we resort to ad-hominems, hyperbole and sarcasm through frustration. The subjects of evolution, intuition and science become battle grounds of reason between rational and irrational thought. The ability to communicate and convince others of our POV is elusive.
Understanding is hindered not only by personality types but mainly through early exposure to fiction taught as facts, mind altering dogma and irrational fear of the unknown. These fixations about things such as heaven and hell lead to a plethora of strange beliefs that simple reasoning cannot overcome as it's now hard wired. Intellectual enquiry has gone out of the window. Religion has taken humanity beyond the tipping point and the future, in my opinion, looks very grim indeed. Only a few years ago we had some nutters fly aircraft into the WTC causing mass murder and chaos, they've done it on the London Underground too, all for the greater glory of their god - a god which has no evidence or proof to speak of.
This is why rationalists and people who value life need to speak up against fundamentalist religion and try to encourage people to see sense. There are loads of people around the world who hold positions of power and authority and also believe in 'the end times'. I don't particularly want these people to be in charge of the world's destiny.
Wouldn't it be better to have love for love's sake? Kindness for the sake of kindness, reason and virtue through understanding? Doing all this as a person and from your own free choice rather than having to do it because someone says it's 'God's command'? The bonus of Humanist Atheism is that rational thought lies at it's heart, the problem with mainstream religions is that they rely on the gospel truth and this can be translated into whatever the believer wants.
This is of course my POV and not a jot of information that has been exchanged here has dented it for me."
random opinion on the interweb, your thoughts?
Understanding is hindered not only by personality types but mainly through early exposure to fiction taught as facts, mind altering dogma and irrational fear of the unknown. These fixations about things such as heaven and hell lead to a plethora of strange beliefs that simple reasoning cannot overcome as it's now hard wired. Intellectual enquiry has gone out of the window. Religion has taken humanity beyond the tipping point and the future, in my opinion, looks very grim indeed. Only a few years ago we had some nutters fly aircraft into the WTC causing mass murder and chaos, they've done it on the London Underground too, all for the greater glory of their god - a god which has no evidence or proof to speak of.
This is why rationalists and people who value life need to speak up against fundamentalist religion and try to encourage people to see sense. There are loads of people around the world who hold positions of power and authority and also believe in 'the end times'. I don't particularly want these people to be in charge of the world's destiny.
Wouldn't it be better to have love for love's sake? Kindness for the sake of kindness, reason and virtue through understanding? Doing all this as a person and from your own free choice rather than having to do it because someone says it's 'God's command'? The bonus of Humanist Atheism is that rational thought lies at it's heart, the problem with mainstream religions is that they rely on the gospel truth and this can be translated into whatever the believer wants.
This is of course my POV and not a jot of information that has been exchanged here has dented it for me."
random opinion on the interweb, your thoughts?

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