RE: God: No magic required
January 28, 2014 at 4:28 pm
(This post was last modified: January 28, 2014 at 4:41 pm by lweisenthal.)
Hi Kitanetos,
>>As far as I am concerned, there is no inherent good in religion or its belief system, for even to fall prey to the lie of happiness that religious belief instills is not preferable to the miserable truth.<<
Happiness is not a lie; it is happiness. Solace is not a lie; it is solace. Freedom from substance abuse or behavioral dysfunction is not a lie; it is improved well-being, not simply for the believer, but for those whose lives are impacted by said believer. Attenuation of loneliness is not a lie, and so on.
Humans have had religion since the dawn of humanity. Religions endure because they fill a need. Religion isn't right for everyone, but it is beneficial to many. Your argument against religion is that my religiosity degrades your reality. Let's call this the second hand smoke theory of religious impact on society. The solution is separation of church and state, as opposed to religious extinction, which will never happen, as proven most recently by the attempted extinction of religion by government edict in the Soviet Union.
If you feel that societal atheism is important, you need to make your case to theists that they have it all wrong; you can't impose atheism by edict or wishful thinking, and you sure can't do it by denigrating theists as being stupid and delusional.
Let's turn this around. I pride myself in being open minded. I'm open minded to the possibility that both I and the world would be better off were I an atheist, rather than a theist. So persuade me. Convince me. All of the trash talking and gratuitous insults and trite slogans which have been offered as the chief response of certain participants do nothing to change my views. But I'm open to being persuaded by a thoughtful and compelling argument. Can anyone offer such an argument? If you can't persuade the likes of me, how on earth do you ever hope to persuade an actual evangelical? Or are you interested only in hanging out with the other cognoscenti, laughing along with your friends at Bill Maher's jokes, directed at easy targets, such as talking snakes and magic underwear?
- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
>>As far as I am concerned, there is no inherent good in religion or its belief system, for even to fall prey to the lie of happiness that religious belief instills is not preferable to the miserable truth.<<
Happiness is not a lie; it is happiness. Solace is not a lie; it is solace. Freedom from substance abuse or behavioral dysfunction is not a lie; it is improved well-being, not simply for the believer, but for those whose lives are impacted by said believer. Attenuation of loneliness is not a lie, and so on.
Humans have had religion since the dawn of humanity. Religions endure because they fill a need. Religion isn't right for everyone, but it is beneficial to many. Your argument against religion is that my religiosity degrades your reality. Let's call this the second hand smoke theory of religious impact on society. The solution is separation of church and state, as opposed to religious extinction, which will never happen, as proven most recently by the attempted extinction of religion by government edict in the Soviet Union.
If you feel that societal atheism is important, you need to make your case to theists that they have it all wrong; you can't impose atheism by edict or wishful thinking, and you sure can't do it by denigrating theists as being stupid and delusional.
Let's turn this around. I pride myself in being open minded. I'm open minded to the possibility that both I and the world would be better off were I an atheist, rather than a theist. So persuade me. Convince me. All of the trash talking and gratuitous insults and trite slogans which have been offered as the chief response of certain participants do nothing to change my views. But I'm open to being persuaded by a thoughtful and compelling argument. Can anyone offer such an argument? If you can't persuade the likes of me, how on earth do you ever hope to persuade an actual evangelical? Or are you interested only in hanging out with the other cognoscenti, laughing along with your friends at Bill Maher's jokes, directed at easy targets, such as talking snakes and magic underwear?
- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
