(October 30, 2014 at 11:10 am)Parkers Tan Wrote: ... and even their religious motives have political bases as well -- people use religion to cover many misdeeds.
Yes. ...and to assist followers in carrying them out, overriding their conscience. Religion is not the only way to get good people to do bad things but it arguably is the most effective way to do it.
Religion provides an ultimate authority on morality, one that overrides human evaluations, one that can't be verified, and so can sanitize inhumanity and get people willing to do inhumane things in what they think is a good cause.
Religion demonizes opponents with a ultimate source of evil, one which can always be attributed to enemies. If you think your neighbor is in league with the devil, you may be capable of doing anything to him or her.
The Islamo-Christian faith in particular ratchets the stakes as high as they can be, with a faith-based scheme of eternal salvation. Hell is so terrify and life so transitory, trivial in comparison, that what is a little torture and killing in order to save so many souls from that terrible fate?
Admittedly, political and economic radicals can also commit atrocities if they think the ends justify the means. However, with these, the proof is in the pudding. There's a reality check that religion doesn't have. Communism collapsed when its adherents noticed that the promised worker's paradise never came. Some day, those who believe in trickle down economics might notice the same thing. Religion has no such reality check. Its rewards happen after we die and go to some place that can't be discovered while we're on earth. Nobody returns from the grave to say it's all bullshit.
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
