(September 16, 2009 at 9:35 am)Eilonnwy Wrote: Of course religion is not the sole reason for all the world ills. It's childish to think as much. Many issues are complicated with much deeper underlining problems, many having nothing to do with religion. However, there are certain evils that religions perpetuate that continue to damage this world and is certainly not innocent in all things.
For instance, the idea that blasphemy is a crime worth the punishment of death is a completely religious concept and has caused the death of many innocent people. And yet the people who put these blasphemers to death are convinced they are doing a righteous thing.
As Dawkins says: "Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
Hello & thanks.
I think you have touched upon the core of my problem. As much as I admire Richard Dawkins I think that "........But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion... " is an over-simplification. Were the Japanese kamikaze suicide bombers of WW2 "good" people driven by their religious beliefs (they did believe their emperor to be a god), or were they "good" people trying to defend their country ?
K