Posted: Jul 18, 2016 1:25 am
laklak wrote:Not really, I think we still need it. Haven't you heard theists argue that without God everybody would be raping and murdering? They're talking about themselves when they say that. Not everyone can keep an even keel without the carrot of Heaven and the stick of Hell. Of course some people take it too far, as we see every day.
Yes. And yet I also can't help thinking of all the unbelievably horrific things that people have done with religion as the excuse or pretext/justification.
I don't promote it because it seems to me that people either get it or they don't. No one ever tried to convince me either way, and yet I arrived at the "there's no evidence" position on my own.
EDIT: I want to add that I strongly feel that humans can behave in perfectly ethical ways WITHOUT having to subscribe to any particular "brand" of organized religion.
Years ago at the age of about 12 I had occasion to meet Madalyn Murray O'Hair backstage at a speaking engagement, and I will never forget it. Asked about my position at that time, I volunteered the information that I was an Agnostic. I will never forget her response. She pinned me with a look and said simply and directly to me "Ah, a closet Atheist, eh?" It was at once a challenge and an indictment. In that single, simple statement she gave me a philosophical "shove" --- "Get honest with yourself" was my takeaway from that. And I was simultaneously slightly offended that an "adult" would be so blunt and almost "mean" and not cut a little slack for a kid (me) --- AND honored that she would treat me with enough respect to truly challenge me despite my young age. She certainly DID promote Atheism, and that was her choice. A courageous one at the time, given the context she was in. But she also paid a high price for it.