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So you want to examine the faults... but what about their virtues? A little one-sided, huh? :)

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• Re: Picky Picky!

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  2006.09.21 04:50pm
  Aaron

  People are free to respond (or write articles) with perceived virtues but as far as I'm concerned many of the virtues are myths, or virtuous in the same way that having your legs sawed off to make immune to stubbed toes is virtuous.

  I'm just telling the truth about my intent; that however does not mean that logic is on vacation. Intelligent rebuttal which doesn't help me prove my point won't be shunned or censored.

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Well, you know, consequences don't speak to truth. I always want to side-step the issues surrounding the virtues and vices of religion because they are irrelevant to the more fundamental question of whether the assertions made by religions are <i>true</i>. I realize though that for many people the issue often boils down to statements such as 'without God, there is no need to be moral'* or 'without God, there is no purpose'--but these are not arguments for the existence of God per se.

On the other hand, it is highly unlikely that our species will let go of religious beliefs in the short or even long-term. On solely pragmatic grounds it may be better to argue for a type of religious belief that causes less harm to both the planet and the people in it, and you may be right to identify dogmatism and hierarchy as enablers of nasty behaviour.

Yet ultimately the root cause is the irrationality of religious belief itself. Attacking the most extreme examples of this is a sound tactic given current contingencies, but the over-all strategy is not merely to render religion innocuous, rather to innoculate our minds from it entirely.

*It amazes me that people honestly believe religion is the fount of morality--as if the threat of eternal punishment is the one thing preventing utter descent into chaos. And in any event, religious mores cause in fact more suffering than anything else: one example, which I see is a tab on the left-hand side, is HIV and AIDS, whose spread the Catholic Church has abetted by refusing to endorse condom usage. The blood on their hands defies comprehension and yet--and yet! the Vatican remains a moral force in the world. Irrationality indeed, and I challenge anyone to suggest otherwise.

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