RE: Why should religion have any influence on our lives?
October 3, 2014 at 8:16 am
(This post was last modified: October 3, 2014 at 8:18 am by Michael B.)
Fidel
The point I was making (obviously a little poorly) is that you can't separate the influence 'religion' from the presence of 'religious people', or at least not in a democratic or remotely free society. Religion is not an abstract construct that exists independently of people. If you want people to be free you must accept religious influence in society. If if you really want to remove the influence of religion then you must somehow remove the religious people (or very heavily suppress them, but then of course you have given up any notion or pretence of a free society).
By suppressing religious education of children you have yourself given up any ideals of a free society. A society with such level of state-control (that seeks to suppress commonly held values and beliefs) is certainly not one I'd want to belong to, but perhaps atheists would all be happy with such totalitarianism.
Your response does also rather give the impression that atheism can't hold it's own without always wanting to lurch towards totalitarianism (which of course matches some of the significant and relevant history of atheism in politics).
The point I was making (obviously a little poorly) is that you can't separate the influence 'religion' from the presence of 'religious people', or at least not in a democratic or remotely free society. Religion is not an abstract construct that exists independently of people. If you want people to be free you must accept religious influence in society. If if you really want to remove the influence of religion then you must somehow remove the religious people (or very heavily suppress them, but then of course you have given up any notion or pretence of a free society).
By suppressing religious education of children you have yourself given up any ideals of a free society. A society with such level of state-control (that seeks to suppress commonly held values and beliefs) is certainly not one I'd want to belong to, but perhaps atheists would all be happy with such totalitarianism.
Your response does also rather give the impression that atheism can't hold it's own without always wanting to lurch towards totalitarianism (which of course matches some of the significant and relevant history of atheism in politics).
