Religious "moderates" and atheists

[Mudhammam]

1) I never singled you out.
2) I never said you were responsible for anyone's actions.

You did both. And you've yet to support your opening statement with anything but bollocks about how "if I love the world" or "if I want to engage in rational debate" and a bunch of condemnations of religiously held opinions.

Did you just wake up in the world yesterday? If not, I shouldn't have to demonstrate to you the many issues that face the world, from global warming to free individual expression, and where religious fundamentalists typically fall on such issues. It's evident pretty much everywhere you look.

I have no positive duty to save the world.

I didn't say you did. I only said if you wish to move mankind forward, if you care about the world's future at all, and wish to be part of the solution, then the problems we face must be directly confronted. If you accept that these problems require a widespread change of mindset, and clearly they do, then it is your duty to at least contribute to the discussion and dissent from the extremist views that harm the world rather than help it. Religious fundamentalism has proven itself throughout history to be an obstacle to overcome in this fight, not an ally.

That's the most idiotic thing you've said. And worse, you want me to save the world from people believing certain things and teaching their children to believe them. If that's the "crime of fundamentalism," then fuck you. More power to them.

Yeah, who cares if girls with Muslim parents have their clitorises cut off? Who cares if boys and girls raised Christian kill themselves because they can't cope with being gay? Who cares if our planet becomes inhabitable because people thought a spirit in the sky would save it? Yeah. Power to them.

You're a real dick head.

As long as privately held religious belief is not the cause of evil, it's none of my business.

Ohhhh yeah because that's what this discussion has been about. Except that it's not. Because fundamentalism never remains "private" at the voting booth or behind the lash of a whip. And do you think raising children in a mental cage is going to translate to well-reasoned ideologies that aren't related to religion?

You and others here think simply having fundamentalist beliefs is evil, and have some silly argument that I'm turning a blind eye to evil by ignoring it. That's nonsense.

Is it nonsense to care that millions, if not billions, of people spend their whole lives believing in lies that have been cemented in their minds at the earliest age they can remember? If you ignore that, the fear induced in the human psyche as a result of mythologies, than yeah, you're a fucking douche.

And furthermore, the fact that I have different concerns than you, and different approaches to the problem, doesn't make me "part of the problem."

What are your concerns? Thus far it seems to be, "let religious people play with their toys," meanwhile remaining ignorant of the problems that effect everyone else as a result.

This whole, "if you're not with us, you're against us" attitude of yours is more clearly a contributor.

It's called the real world.