(June 22, 2014 at 3:25 pm)Pickup_shonuff Wrote: Bertrand Russell--whom I am currently reading and falling in love with (yes I'm late to the party)--says at the close of his essay, "Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization":
"It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion."
I agree with that sentiment and that is the frustrating situation we still find ourselves in. Here we are, facing this monster, the rational among us realizing that physical threat or coercion would only strengthen the monster and fuse ourselves to it, yet at the same time, realizing that the dragon is completely immune to reasoned argument. Or is it just very stubborn, and will reasoned argument eventually slay the dragon? I can't see that happening. Human beings are generally too dumb.
How do we slay the dragon?
Btw, these are a few of the many quotes in his writings I have had to underline. It is a pleasure to find someone who can summarize truths in such a succinct manner:
"A habit of basing conviction upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree of certainty which the evidence warrants, would, if it became general, cure most of the ills from which the world is suffering."
"I should wish to see a world in which education aimed at mental freedom rather than at impoverishing the minds of the young in a rigid armor of dogma calculated to protect them through life against the shafts of impartial evidence."
"At all times, from the age of Constantine to the end of the seventeenth century, Christians were far more fiercely persecuted by other Christians than they ever were by the Roman emperors... It is true that the modern Christian is less robust but that is not thanks to Christianity; it is thanks to the generations of freethinkers, who, from the Renaissance to the present day, have made Christians ashamed of many of their traditional beliefs. It is amusing to hear the modern Christian telling you how mild and rationalistic Christianity really is and ignoring the fact that all its mildness and rationalism is due to the teaching of men who in their own day were persecuted by all orthodox Christians."
when you put a bullet in your head. There will be one less dragon.
When you can say: "thank you and good luck to you too." after someone said "god bless you" you will be awake.
So continue in your dream time my child. Paddle that fuckin boat as hard as you can, seeking a shore that is everywhere.
