RE: Why do you make such a big deal out of it?
January 24, 2014 at 8:47 pm
(This post was last modified: January 24, 2014 at 8:50 pm by Simon Moon.)
(January 24, 2014 at 8:01 pm)Ivy Wrote: He asked me the other day. "Why do you feel the need to make your non-belief such a big deal? Why did you start a group? Why do you search for other groups so you could introduce your own?" Well, in other words. He also said, "You don't go around talking about how you don't have a thing for dolphins. Isn't your lack of faith in a god the same thing? There's nothing there, so why talk about it?"
Because people's beliefs don't live in a vacuum, they inform their actions.
There have been dozens of (known) witch burnings in Africa in the last few years by Christians, based on Exodus 22:18.
Female genital mutilation, persecuting homosexuals and passing laws preventing them from getting married (or worse, imprisoning or killing them), teaching pseudoscience in public schools, 'honor killings', impeding science, picketing funerals in a time of grief, are just a few of the real world, negative outcomes of people's theistic beliefs.
Doesn't your brother have any problems with any of the above? Doesn't he think speaking out about them is worthwhile?
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
