Famed biologist says religion ‘is dragging us down’ and must be eliminated

[Tonus]

Just keep them from positions of power, and that will probably be enough to at least make them a lot less harmful. Anyone who tries to run on "religious values" should be shut down. Keep it private. If you want to believe in gods, that's fine. Just don't force your beliefs on others, or try to use the government to convert or privilege your religion.

Religion and religious influence are such a powerful political tool that I don't think you can ever separate them. It's like wanting to have the money taken out of politics-- the people who could make that happen aren't about to give up the money and the power it confers.

Or to put it another way: if religion didn't exist, we would invent it.

[ManMachine]

We don't have a good scientific understanding of what religion does for humanity. It's unwise (not to say unscientific) to assume its all bad and needs getting rid of. We simply don't know.

MM

Whatever good comes out of it is predicated on delusion and faulty reasoning. There may be a context in which this is beneficial, but that could not possibly render any particular religious dogma a thing-in-itself good as we might reasonably consider reasoning that leads to tentative knowledge or conditional truth to be good as a thing-in-itself

Like I said, we don't know.

This is nothing more than ideological fascism and the science behind it is speculative at best and can be applied to all thought at worst - including scientific theory.

MM

[KevinM1]

I tend to generally agree with the biologist's opinion, if only because religion tends to block critical thought. At the end of the day, I find the ability for people to hand wave anything away with "God did it" to be incredibly troublesome. While religion may offer some non-exclusive benefits like the feeling of social cohesion and fellowship, I feel that it's a net negative to society because it can be used as an excuse for any and all misdeeds.

I agree with whomever said that even without religion we'd still form groups and have conflicts. The thing is, secular people tend to be better at critical thinking and display more empathy (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-...tml#page=1), so maybe those conflicts won't be so bloody, and/or won't be based on faulty reasoning. At least, one can hope. It's certainly a better situation to be in than believing a magical sky daddy gives a shit about this little mud ball, anyway. That's just delusional, IMO.

Thankfully, if the demographic trends continue the way they are, then religion will be mostly an afterthought in the USA in a couple generations. It will naturally fade away. No 'wiping out' required.

[robvalue]

Sure, there will be conflicts and divisions. But I feel it's much more likely sensible solutions can be found when people aren't all pointing up at the sky and blathering incoherently.

[Mudhammam]

Like I said, we don't know.

This is nothing more than ideological fascism and the science behind it is speculative at best and can be applied to all thought at worst - including scientific theory.

MM

Fascism?! What?

"Not enough of our society is trained how to understand and interpret quantitative information. This activity is a centerpiece of science literacy to which we should all strive -- the future health, wealth, and security of our democracy depend on it. Until that is achieved, we are at risk of making under-informed decisions that affect ourselves, our communities, our country, and even the world."

I agree with Neil Tyson. That isn't fascist, and moreover, it isn't compatible with an attitude that shrugs at religion.