(December 31, 2015 at 7:22 am)Little Rik Wrote:(December 31, 2015 at 7:00 am)robvalue Wrote: Religion is a tool, and I agree that two of its big uses are oppression and control. Two very ugly features.
The tool itself is not good or bad, it's entirely up to people what they do with it. As books though, horrible shit like the bible and the Quran are more like spiked baseball bats than shovels. They take a lot of modification to use positively. Like being softened with the pillow of secularism taped over it.
I put religions and atheism on the same despicable level.
When religions get the upper hand they cause enormous damage and
when materialism get the upper hand they also cause enormous damage
as we can see with communism before and capitalism now.
All these systems rely on exploitation so they are both evil.
Bullshit.
"atheist" means "off" on god claims, nothing more. Some atheists are greedy and materialistic, and others are empathetic and giving. "Atheist" is not a worldview, it is not a political party, it is not a religion, it is not a "system".
What is "despicable" is when my well intended liberal atheist and theist friends on the left, being a social and economic liberal myself, pull the pluralism crap which allows the religious nuts to hide behind the word "faith" to avoid being called out.
Humans have rights, even the right to make bullshit claims, and others have the right to call it bullshit. Now, if we atheists don't like it when theists put us in a box, please don't pull the crap that bluntness and ridicule is the same as a demand to oppress the religious. Civility is not about being free from getting offended or offending others, civility is what you do in the face of of getting offended. The best way to shut a critic up is with facts.
