my dog earl

Have you ever seen the Monty Python movie where the meaning of life was discovered and when it was whispered to someone they intantly became insane? That was so funny.......now I know why fundies are the way they are.

I guess I am not so unlike the thumpers in that I want to get the message of "truth" out too.

happyboy

the crusades.

the spanish inquisition.

the ku klux klan.

the 'salem witch trials.

september 11th.

the taliban.

the suppression of knowledge and tolerance.

i can think of PLENTY of reasons why theism ought to be combated and fought with tooth and nail to the bitter end.

a very disgusted happyboy

Magus55

Stalin, an atheist, 21 million people murdered by a free thinker, more than all the deaths from the things above.

And you are forgetting that, Islam (taliban, sept 11 etc) are told to do that in the Quran. Those who committ heinous acts in the name of Christianity are doing it from their own delusions and agenda because Jesus never told them to do so.

Spaz

You see magus, the difference is that those people do those things because of their religion, Stalin killed people because he was an asshole. Whether Jesus tells them to kill people or not doesn't matter if they think god wants them to do it.

lpetrich

Magus55:
Stalin, an atheist, 21 million people murdered by a free thinker, more than all the deaths from the things above.

Because there are more people for Stalin's henchmen to kill than were available to most leaders in most previous centuries.

Looking back to the "Wars of Religion" of the Reformation, according to this site on the Thirty Years' War, the "Holy Roman Empire" had a population decline of 21 million (1618) to 16 million (1648). Largely because they could not decide whether that part of Europe should be Catholic, Lutheran, or Calvinist. And worst of all, the war ended roughly as it started, with no side winning.

And you are forgetting that, Islam (taliban, sept 11 etc) are told to do that in the Quran.

The Bible contains similar things, however.

Those who committ heinous acts in the name of Christianity are doing it from their own delusions and agenda because Jesus never told them to do so.

Where did Jesus Christ explicitly say that the OT's massacres were just plain wrong? His vituperative comments might suggest otherwise.

Just Another Infidel

Dog Earl,

Here's a couple articles you may find of interest:

Richard Dawkins on Sep 11, religious terrorism

Religion's misguided missles

JAI

Jamie_L

Religious belief in many cases is not a small aspect of people's lives. It is the core of their lives. It is understandable to be worried about people who have, at the core of their being, a dramatically incorrect assumption about the way life works.

I would think the same is true of religious people when faced with believers of other religions.

From a more atheist-centric view, blind faith makes people easier to manipulate by authority figures of their faith. If you don't trust the authority figures of such faiths, then you will also be understanably nervous about the believers themselves.

That's really it. It's not that religion causes people to do bad things. Blind faith makes it easy for bad people to spur others to do bad things.

Critical thinking is the defense to this, and it's harder to develop critical thinking skills in people when they must wall off certain aspects of their being from such thinking.

Thus, the instinct to want to "deconvert the world".

Jamie

Godless Dave

Stalin was probably not a freethinker, and he definitely did not encourage free thought - he wanted citizens of the Soviet Union to accept his version of Communism unquestioningly. If they did question, they got executed.

Bree

Yes, but did Stalin's atheist outlook actually cause to commit those crimes? Did he kill 21 million people because they refused to become atheist? No - he had other tunes to play...unlike the perpetrators of the Inquisition, among other religious atrocities that were committed against people simply because they refused to convert.

Taffer

I pride myself on the fact that I never initiate religious discussions with theists. I may throw my opinion into a debate (and then go hide behind a large rock) or respond when somebody challenges me, but I know what a massive PITA it is when somebody just won't give up on converting you.

There is a certain knee-jerk reaction to what I see as particularly stupid articles or shameless propaganda, but I see that as trying to justify my choice to myself. It's rather like rooting for a team in sports; You want your team to win (screw those other guys, they're crappy and all have dandruff anyway) , and beneath all that is an undercurrent of "please don't prove me wrong, please don't prove me wrong".

Or maybe I'm just a psychotic teenager with manic depression and rampant insecurity.