Brainstorm

[SteelCurtain]

[Excited Penguin]

Who gets to decide which religious ideas should be banned, EP?

No one in particular, all of us together. That's how democracy works, SC. I am for democracy, if that wasn't clear.

[Ivan Denisovich]

Ahhh....well then I think we are mostly in agreement.

Possible.

Education and improving life conditions to filter out as much of the harmful religion as we can, but eradicating religion altogether....its just not going to happen.

Yes, it's not going to happen. Sadly.

[Losty]

Ahhh....well then I think we are mostly in agreement.

Possible.

Education and improving life conditions to filter out as much of the harmful religion as we can, but eradicating religion altogether....its just not going to happen.

Yes, it's not going to happen. Sadly.

If it ever did happen, over many years and solely through education (not indoctrination) and improved living conditions would be the only path to getting rid of religion that I would support.

[Excited Penguin]

I am not against religion as a principle. I am not dogmatically against it, so to speak. I am only against certain aspects of it, and to certain degrees depending on what I'm talking about at any given moment. I am against religious hate speech - I think it should be legally disallowed. But everything else, is up for discussion, and I think I have good enough reasons to convince anyone who needs convincing that religion is inherently bad, even dismissing the violent aspect of it.

[SteelCurtain]

Who gets to decide which religious ideas should be banned, EP?

No one in particular, all of us together. That's how democracy works, SC. I am for democracy, if that wasn't clear.

That's how strict democracy works, and that's also why no successful nation on Earth employs a strict democratic system.

If the majority gets to decide what's banned, atheists are fucked. In America, if the majority got to decide, we'd still have different water fountains and schools for black people.

It would still be illegal to be gay in most parts of the American South. Segregated housing would still be more rampant than it is in the major cities and the south.

[Ivan Denisovich]

Possible.


Yes, it's not going to happen. Sadly.

If it ever did happen, over many years and solely through education (not indoctrination) and improved living conditions would be the only path to getting rid of religion that I would support.

I wouldn't cry if religion were to be banned. Though apart from it being impossible it may have results that legislators had not in mind, i.e. rekindling of religious fervor.

[SteelCurtain]

I wouldn't cry if religion were to be banned. Though apart from it being impossible it may have results that legislators had not in mind, i.e. rekindling of religious fervor.

Exactly. You want the third Great Awakening? Try 'banning' certain religious thoughts and ideas. That's a way to mobilize these knuckleheads with assault rifles. Y'allQaeda for real.

[Excited Penguin]

I don't think we can overcome religion altogether, exactly, not until we can cure all forms of insanity, at least.

But we can educate people and help them look at it all from a scientific/rational perspective. And that's the work of antitheists, not atheists. An atheist who claims is not antitheist is simply a coward, in my opinion, a particularly deluded person(morally), or simply uninformed as to the harm religion does and can do. Believing false things as a rule and unwilling to revise those beliefs in face of new evidence/sound reasoning is harmful. Ok? It is harmful. You cannot tell me with a straight face that it isn't.

[Losty]

If it ever did happen, over many years and solely through education (not indoctrination) and improved living conditions would be the only path to getting rid of religion that I would support.

I wouldn't cry if religion were to be banned. Though apart from it being impossible it may have results that legislators had not in mind, i.e. rekindling of religious fervor.

I wouldn't cry, but I would protest. I can't think of anything more important than the freedom of thought. Every person in the world should be granted mental autonomy.