(September 20, 2010 at 7:12 pm)chatpilot Wrote: My opinion on this matter is Fuck the general public! If it were up to them there would never have been any atheists to begin with, or at least they would have all been relegated to being closet atheists. It's the general public that espouses the nonsense that is religious beliefs, especially here in the Unites States. If they had their way they would be content to go back to the days when blasphemy was not only a sin but a crime punishable by a jail sentence or death.
Atheists hold a minority in the United States and, to a lesser extent, around the world but... well... let me explain:
Before I came to the atheistforums, I had never seen Richard Dawkins, read any of his books, or seen him anywhere. I didn't even know what he looked like. I've since used youtube and seen some links and such provided around here and I've seen this man debate and I now understand why, even outside of atheist circles (such as the scientific community), that he's as respected and famous a man as he is.
This is because he not only challenges the religious establishment, but he does so in a manner that is eloquent, incisive, clear, well reasoned, and simple but with a depth that few other orators of lesser skill can accomplish. He and others like him may indeed be why atheism is more prominant in the public eye lately than it has been in decades past.
However, a movie like the one above is precisely the kind of thing that fuels the kind of ignorance that is so prominant in the public circle that it can only force atheism to be an even more poisonous term than it is now - much like how government-run healthcare in the United States "hiliarycare" and "obamacare" are both popular amongst the general public when the actual facts about these things are laid bare while at the same time becomes a very poisonous idea in the eyes of the general public. You'd think these people want the insurance companies to be able to make as much money as they please based off of how many people they can deny coverage to, damn whether or not the rejected is a 12 year old child who needs a new liver.
My point though is that if people see atheism as reasonable and logical, such as how Dawkins portrays our (lack of) ideaology when combined with reasonable skepticism and acceptance of science and knowledge I think it would only help all of us.
THen you have to consider this movie portraying an evil atheist who exists only because he hates god, america, and fun. At that point, that can only hurt us and force more of us to go underground.
I LOVE christmas damn it!
To whatever extent, I do agree that there are some out there who would love to send America back to the Dark Ages when sin, non-christians, and heresey (such as a heliocentric solar system) was solved with a gillotine at worst or excommunication at best. However, I highly doubt that the vast majority of americans or anyone with any sense feels that way, despite the very vocal minority.
If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools and next year you can make it a crime to teach it to the hustings or in the church. At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers...
Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding. Always feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers; tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers and the lecturers, the magazines, the books, the newspapers. After a while, Your Honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth centry when bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind. ~Clarence Darrow, at the Scopes Monkey Trial, 1925
Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. ~Ronald Reagan
Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding. Always feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers; tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers and the lecturers, the magazines, the books, the newspapers. After a while, Your Honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth centry when bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind. ~Clarence Darrow, at the Scopes Monkey Trial, 1925
Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. ~Ronald Reagan