reprise

I think that there have been a few cases in history where nations have pretty much outlawed religion, so I don't think that we can quite claim that "atheists have never set out to impose their lack of belief on others". I really think that the danger of destroying a culture comes about from the belief that "our values/way of life are better than their values/way of life", not from whether "our values" are religious or secular.

Xezlec

Agreed. I'm very pro-science but that doesn't mean FORCING science and/or atheism on people a la Communism. We should wait till they come down from the mountains themselves and ask how we get so many crops from so little space. Then we can respond, well, there are a lot of things you might want to learn about...

And if they turn around and go back into the mountains, fine. That is their right.

mrmoderate

I don't care for colonializing either but it has been going on since the beginning of mankind. It is certainly not only done by any one group.

In this case, it was also accepted without physical force but rather with persistance. Hopefully the tribes people will hang on to their reverence of their ancestors.

Ellis14

Agreed. I was pointing out that conversion is a classic hallmark of religion, not atheism.

Mageth

Post an example of an atheist or atheists doing this and I'll complain about that, too.

"Science and living without God" are two different things, Magus. I assume you think Christian missionaries teach at least some 'science' as well. And I've never heard of a case where an atheist went in among a tribal people to teach atheism and dispel their superstitions.

Or divine being(s), as often as not. And, if Christian missionaries go in, they teach that the tribe's divine being(s) are false, aren't the true divine being, don't exist, or at a minimum have been misidentified and are really the God of the Bible in disguise. IOW, the Christians would be teaching them to be atheistic about their conceived divine being(s).

In any case, how exactly would it be more harmful to the culture to teach them atheism than to teach them Christianity?

And for a culture tightly tied to a mythology, that can completely destroy the culture.

Once again, atheists are not typically into such conversion. There may have been cases where some government or other forced "atheism" onto people, but I've yet to hear of an atheist "missionary" that would do such a thing to save people from some perceived threat. That's almost exclusively an obsession of Christianity.

Starboy

I hope that they hang onto their entire culture. They have a right to believe as they wish. They should tar and feather those Christians and ride them out on a rail.

Starboy

Magus55

Um, yes you can teach Christianity without suppressing science.

Magus55

Prove abiogenesis as a fact.

Thats cause there aren't enough, and its a losing battle. And technically atheists are trying to. Atheists try to show others that God isn't needed, and a world without God is just as good or better than one with. Atheists may be more subtle in their efforts, but atheists are not blameless in trying to convince others that theism is stupid.

Magus55

And the Christians gave them that right. I don't remember seeing a quote in the article where missionaries put a gun to the tribal members heads and said believe or die. Missionaries present Jesus and Christianity to the people, and leave the rest to them. Its up to the tribal members to decide whether they want to accept it.

Starboy

No big surprise from you Magus. To a Christian no means yes.

Starboy