(September 3, 2015 at 7:57 pm)Whateverist the White Wrote: Former member Jonb emailed me the link to this talk which I found pretty moving. I'm inclined too say that religion certainly can lead to some pretty bad morality but I'm inclined to think that is just because they run on the same human platform we all do. We all have the potential to misunderstand and to paint others as enemies. We are all homo fairly sapient, not completely wise. From what he says here, I think religion has and continues to be a device which can focus and magnify some of our worse tendencies and bring them to bear in troubling ways. Of course many religious groups also do charity work.
I don't think I'm inclined to accept the conclusion that religion is, all things considered, more a force for evil and backwardness, not for good and progress. At best, I think it is correct to point out that religion is potentially dangerous since it deals in unsupportable claims. Just look at our poor friend the professor who is constantly disturbed by apocryphal portents. I'm not ready to concede it cannot be a positive experience for some however.
Should we embrace anti-theism? I'm not there yet, how about you?
https://youtu.be/hAuwB6zcdVo
Wow. That was an excellent speech by that guy and it covered everything. I can see myself referring back to that video many times in the future.
I think religion does indeed corrupt morality not least by making everything black and white and arbitrary in all its laws and commandments. I think morality is much more contextual than that, and should be. I think someone will always be left out in the cold if blanket statements of what's right and wrong are made because it doesn't take into account individual differences or individual circumstances.
