Well yes,
Up to a point. The trouble is that there is almost no tolerance in religious belief. Take a look at the recent edicts by the pope and tell me he is a tolerant, reasonable man. He is not and, actually, most seriously religious people are not either.
There comes a point when you have to stand up and say "no" and stand firm for rational thinking.
I agree that a backlash may be coming. The trouble is there is no obvious way of reconciling the believers with the sensible. The believers will not listen to anything that goes against their dogma so I think the only way to deal with it is constant, firm criticism.
Edit: Hope, yes but it's a false hope that encourages people to accept their lot in life.
Sense of community: do we really need religion for that?
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Mod Edit, Sat 31 Jan 2009, 18:57,
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Right, trying to bite my lip, ill try not to rant like a cunt, sorry if i do
Prop 8 in california was driven by religious peoples intollerance of homosexuals, I think its wrong that people were able to infringe on other peoples lives because of their dislike of their lifestyles.. Eaqually (as an athiest, or humanist or what ever i am) I think its wrong for there to be similar intollerance of religious people's lifestyles..
And this kind of discourse is part of that, and this guy's pure venom, especially aimed at islam (if he hates christianity so much, what was with the "happy xmas" one, i know he was probably trying to be ironic, it just seemed very childish to me.. sorry cuntishly rambling again...
basicly I hope to some day live in a world where.. if some one wants to put bolts through their face and coverthem selves in tattoos, that they will be respected and allowed to do that, the same way as some one weho wants to cover them selves completly will be respected and allowed to do that. I hope that if some one wishes to live their life openly without shame of their sexuality, and express their love publicly through marrage, will be respected and allowed to do so as much as some one who wishes to express their love to their god etc. through marrage.
ie. i want tollerance, legaly, moraly assured tollerance for every one, no matter what they think, believe, look like, dress etc.
Generaly that exists in the UK at least, but prop 8 shows how fragile that is.. And people like this self right...sorry (i am a hypocrit i can see that) people like this bloke only make these ideals more fragile.
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Jorvic, Sat 31 Jan 2009, 19:09,
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I don't claim that religion is needed to acquire a sense of communityq
However, it certainly is one of the easy ways of finding one if you move somewhere new. First thing one of my friends did when she moved was go to the local Evangelical branch - immediate friends, willing to help with whatever she needed (to an extent). There aren't many places you can do that. She's not a mental, and we've had some pretty good debates that only went out of hand once or twice. Luckily we managed to get them under control again.
I dislike the Pope, he was the wrong choice for Catholicism and a lot of Catholics agree, although they still listen to him since that's the way it works - which is exactly the problem. Religions are lost in their old-fashionedness, most haven't managed to move on, whatever religion you're talking about.
When you say believers I think you mean fundamentalists. It is true that they are very hard line, but what they believe in is so firmly ingrained in their minds that criticism will just, in my opinion at least, come across as insulting. The more moderate members of the same faith will be the ones who will convince their militant sides to finally shut the fuck up. A lot of these fundies are led to believe what they do by the interests of one, charismatic leader. They are the ones that mess everything up.
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morrybyte made a subtle namechange at, Sat 31 Jan 2009, 19:36,
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Bit late - sorry had to put child to bed.
In the end it boils down to: is it true? If it's not it's bollocks and should be fought because it poisons people and causes great harm to many (or false hope, which equates to harm in my view).
Let's face it - it's not true is it?
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Mod Edit, Sat 31 Jan 2009, 21:50,
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