diffidus: Rational thinking also stopped slavery of black people. It stopped women from being treated like shit. It stopped diseases, is stopping cancer now, makes sure that most kids survive (unlike less then half from the past). Blaming rational thinking for all these bad things is like blaming all these things on the fact that we breathe. You're now just twisting your own thoughts and making excuses to make rational thinking look bad. That sort of self dillusion is just inexcusable.
The guillotine was not the epitome of enlightment. Even very bad things happened in that time, they created the foundations of democracy as it exsists today. Sometimes good ideas can be horribly mangled and be poorly executed, but the idea is still good.
If the communists and Hitler had spent some MORE time thinking rational, these things might not have happened.
Bad people have always been good at dilluding themselves with whatever excuses. You think that your modern examples are the only ones? Religious people have been dilluding themselves with the bible, telling that they were right and put women on bonfires, tortured others for not looking up when the wafer was presented and led holy wars. Is that really any better?
So it seems it is not rationality to blame, but more the human nature to find an excuse for whatever they want to do deep at heart.
And yeah, that is what many humans are still doing this day.
Sadly, it is a misconception to think that evolution would make us nicer. No, it does not. We did get social skills to be nice to our group, but not all humans belong to our group. Every person that wants to start a war, makes a good effort to clearly define the enemies, tell how terrible they are and dehuminize them. We like to see ourselves as good people, so anyone who is 'that evil' isn't fully human, right?
slavery: black people aren't people but animals.
Burning witches: Witches have sold their soul to the devil and are enemies to good Christians.
Hitler: Jews are untermenchen, aka, not real people.
Communism: Kapitalists are beasts, stealing the clothes from the back of the poor and ripping the food from their mouths. They wear the skins of poor farmer children.
The guillotine was not the epitome of enlightment. Even very bad things happened in that time, they created the foundations of democracy as it exsists today. Sometimes good ideas can be horribly mangled and be poorly executed, but the idea is still good.
If the communists and Hitler had spent some MORE time thinking rational, these things might not have happened.
Bad people have always been good at dilluding themselves with whatever excuses. You think that your modern examples are the only ones? Religious people have been dilluding themselves with the bible, telling that they were right and put women on bonfires, tortured others for not looking up when the wafer was presented and led holy wars. Is that really any better?
So it seems it is not rationality to blame, but more the human nature to find an excuse for whatever they want to do deep at heart.
And yeah, that is what many humans are still doing this day.
Sadly, it is a misconception to think that evolution would make us nicer. No, it does not. We did get social skills to be nice to our group, but not all humans belong to our group. Every person that wants to start a war, makes a good effort to clearly define the enemies, tell how terrible they are and dehuminize them. We like to see ourselves as good people, so anyone who is 'that evil' isn't fully human, right?
slavery: black people aren't people but animals.
Burning witches: Witches have sold their soul to the devil and are enemies to good Christians.
Hitler: Jews are untermenchen, aka, not real people.
Communism: Kapitalists are beasts, stealing the clothes from the back of the poor and ripping the food from their mouths. They wear the skins of poor farmer children.
When I was a Christian, I was annoyed with dogmatic condescending Christians. Now that I'm an atheist, I'm annoyed with dogmatic condescending atheists. Just goes to prove that people are the same, regardless of what they do or don't believe.
