tl;dr
Never ignore the good religion can and does do. Commend them for it, and then point out that all the good can be accomplished secularly. Charity is not copyrighted by the religious, and in fact their charities can be more affective if their religious component can be removed.
One of my favorite questions is "What tangible benefit of religion cannot be achieved entirely by secular means?" Make sure to stress tangible benefit. (I.e. believing in an afterlife where you see your relatives is not tangible in this world, not provable, so essentially a lie.)
The point should not be that religion is only horrible and only does bad things. It is an institution that does good things with a lot of bad baggage attached to it, so why support it if it does good and bad because essentially you condone the bad. Take the good aspects of religion, the charity and all that and chuck the superstition and corruption that leads to the bad.
Never ignore the good religion can and does do. Commend them for it, and then point out that all the good can be accomplished secularly. Charity is not copyrighted by the religious, and in fact their charities can be more affective if their religious component can be removed.
One of my favorite questions is "What tangible benefit of religion cannot be achieved entirely by secular means?" Make sure to stress tangible benefit. (I.e. believing in an afterlife where you see your relatives is not tangible in this world, not provable, so essentially a lie.)
The point should not be that religion is only horrible and only does bad things. It is an institution that does good things with a lot of bad baggage attached to it, so why support it if it does good and bad because essentially you condone the bad. Take the good aspects of religion, the charity and all that and chuck the superstition and corruption that leads to the bad.
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." Benjamin Franklin
::Blogs:: Boston Atheism Examiner - Boston Atheists Blog | :
odcast:: Boston Atheists Report
::Blogs:: Boston Atheism Examiner - Boston Atheists Blog | :
odcast:: Boston Atheists Report
