The problem is that the religious vote…and demand that if you do not believe in their religious garbage, their imaginary god is going to send you to hell….and thus, they have a right to “save you,” by over turning the US Constitution and US Bill of Rights…and creating a theocratic state. In such a theocratic state, the religious can continue to use religious blackmail, extortion, and threats to “force” you to believe in their god…up to and including teaching religion in public schools.

Furthermore, the religious are attemping on every level possible to discredit science… the very science and medicine that often saves their own lives and the lives of their children.

Religion is an institutionalized exercise in political doctrine, with god being the enforcer and the bully….Because down deep the religious mind knows that its all fantasy and imaginary, the work of the religious is then to create massive defense mechanisms, cover up the truth, discredit science…so that the power structure of religion can continue to lie and bamboozle human beings. Therefore, the religious “vote” to continue the lie, which is not just enough for them to believe in, but they demand you also believe.

Throughout history, religion and government have worked hand in hand to promote the despotism of both the church and state. This has to end….this is the 21st century, and there is not a shred of proof as to why religion should exist.

DeeVee

Twittering about an alleged god, gods, maybe a divine committee in charge of the universe is unimportant and uninteresting.

The minimum standard god enthroned by U.S. law (“in god we trust”) or the god of some double-thinking scientists, or the god of Kant simply can not be assumed to be “the” divinity claimed by each big-3 monotheism.

I can have opinions about a fictitious character “Hamlet” as presented by Shakespeare in his play, ‘The Tragedy of Hamlet.’ I can also have opinions about a mythological being “God” as presented in the synoptic gospels of ‘The New Testament.’

All I know about these characters is what I can read in pages directly devoted to them. I can no more find “God” by doing astronomical research than I can disinter “Hamlet’s” bones in a chapel at Elsinore.

When Nietzsche said, “God is dead” he added a gloss — “the belief that belief in the Christian God has become unbelievable.”

** the obscenity of comic book monotheism **

The almighty lords of dualism: Yahweh, God, Allah are moral equivalents of comic book super-villains. God is The Joker. Sacred comix nonetheless enjoy fanatical cult followings. Geeks parsing Batman. Theology is fan fiction.

Don’t however mistake political ideology for religious belief. Wherever political ideology reduces to politico-theology, secular society fails. To the true believer: Secularism corrupts. Tolerance capitulates to evil. Only the pure (= self-righteous) are saved.

Holy text is merely pretext. Ideology masquerading as religion bamboozles the masses, the media. Telemullahs there, televangelists here.

Real terrorist threats in the US: xians undermining the Constitution, trashing biological science, and perverting education to suit a totalitarian ideology of social control and cultural domination.

The disgusting Bush dictatorship manqué represents only a failed prototype.

Home-grown christo-fascists threaten the life of the Republic far more than all so-called Islamo-fascists combined.

bipolar2
copyright asserted 2007

Brillain post! I agree (for once) with your entire post.

Of course there is more to it than that. To many, the question of belief is not just a hobbyist’s interest. It is the emotional and practical issues that stem from belief / unbelief that they have to deal with.

What intrigues me is why some things are more interesting than others: Why is MacGyver more interesting than… someone less interesting? Perhaps because there is something about MacGyver that we would like to see in ourselves? Now, I’ve not watched McGyver myself, but I guess from the Wikipaedia article that we’d all want to express his level of resourcefulness? His practical knowledge? His ability to achieve success? Perhaps thare is something of the MacGyver in all of us. Perhaps we recognise that MacGyver as an ideal *is* real – in the sense that he embodies our hopes and dreams for our own lives.

Peace,

James

This is a great point Simen and exactly what I’ve tried to articulate in the past, but have never been able to put it so eloquently. My religion, of course, is Star Trek. ST is much more believable than Christianity because most of it takes place in the future, therefore no evidence needed. I don’t need to waste my time regurgitating transparent pseudoscience about the great flood, I’ll just wait for the Vulcans to make first contact.

Discussion and reasoning, while, as clearly the readers here feel, a good way to go through your own insecurities, etc., can and is also and end unto itself.

I actually appreciate the varying points of views about faith(s) and what is being said in blogs like these and many others. I have learned a lot from people and this only happens in deep discussion – or being pushed beyond comfortable boundaries. I may not be an atheist or a de-convert – but I value what is being said by them – since they are just as important in the conversation of faith.

Many of the perspectives I have gained from oddly enough come from people who dare question faith – and they come up with some great persepctives – like ‘it would be nice if there were more of them willing to have a go at bringing some fairness and balance to society’ (muffa). I also look at Harris and the idea faith can be used to promote vice – and he’s right. Yet within faith these types of ideas never get bantered around.

I am glad that we all get the opportunity to say what we think and feel – isn’t that part of the greatness of humanity? Faith just happens to be one of those things that once talked about – it’s kind of conjures of some emotions and need to speak about it. This is healthy I think.

I would like to add, though, that for former believers like myself the issue of God’s existence is important because he was once psychologically real to us. That loss is complicated, often hurts (though often results in relief, too — or, to make it even harder, in both). The fact that we no longer believe God exists does nothing to alter that fact that in an important emotional sense, he once did. Exploring it by talking about it feels, well, necessarily. Richard