Nelson Mandela dies.

[Brian37]

What a great guy.

There's some real good people on earth, be it the Pope or Dali Lama, but I believe we've lost a good one.

I really hate this shit. Religious people can be good, yes but that does not make religion as a concept itself good. It allows humans to forget that we are not a separate species and ignores that our morality is evolutionary, not magical.

Whatever good we see in individuals does not change that the superstitious institutions those people support magically change human behavior.

The Vatican and the Church were started in an ignorant age and dominated a very oppressive time and still to this day are always Johny come lately.

Buddhism doesn't get a pass either. It dominates SEVERAL oriental countries who have politics that divide them. Having sympathy for Tibet does not make the collective history of Buddhism violence free. Anyone who thinks Buddhists can't be violent needs to follow the orient in it's entire history.

Everyone is masturbating over the current Pope's statements about "focus". I find his lack of moral courage vile and a very half assed pandering to progressives.

He didn't flat out say "fuck the bible, homophobia is wrong", he did not say "gays should be allowed to get married and or serve in our clergy". He was a coward and merely said "lets not focus on that, don't judge". Now before anyone blasts me, I am a former Catholic.

And when was the last time you saw either a female pope or female Dali Lama? The sexism alone in both is enough to reject them. There may be some powers allowed to some extent for women, but not equal power. I will never value an institution that does not allow women to compete for the top spots.

Religion can be watered down and lend the appearance of tolerance, but the intellectual cost in doing such lends future generations to repeat the same stupid mistakes.

There is no way religion, as a concept is unifying. Nature and nature alone explains our behaviors and even our species delusions, not childish reflections of our own selfish desires.

Now having said that I am under no delusion that it will magically go away or that force can be used to rid the world of it. But it should never get taboo status or ever think it is above scrutiny.

The God Delusion Richard Dawkins.
The New Atheism, Victor Stenger
God Is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens
The End of Faith, Sam Harris
Infidel, Ayaan Hersi Ali
Letter To a Christian Nation, Sam Harris

That is my short reading list and what has shaped my position on ALL religions.

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Who cares. I dont like him.

He's another fake man of the people. I watched the news this morning confirms that. 110 million dollar bank account. What a hero.

No he was not fake. Where the fuck do you get that from? Because he became famous? Because he was rewarded for his efforts? If someone is fake because they benefit financially off of suffering then Malala is a fake too because she earned money writing a book about her experience of girls being oppressed by sexist Muslim thugs.

There are certainly lots of religious fakes, Mandela was not one of them.

You want real fakes? Joel Osteen, Ray Comfort, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and the Imams who control Iran. Those are fakes merely out for money and power.

I can find lots of fault with religion as a concept, and certainly would not be afraid to tell Mandela if I could "What you did was great, but you didn't need a god to do it".

Mandela was a great man and would protect your human rights as well.