Richard Dawkins

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"
I just saw 2 episodes on TV where Dawkins travels the world discussing religion with various people - mostly believers. They were quite interesting. I've got his book, 'The God Delusion' too, but I don't think he's making any new arguments. Still, it's worth reading, especially now where Christian and Muslim fundamentalists are on the rise...
 
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mjp

Founding member
...without defining Good Evil or religion.
Some people define religion as destructive and oppressive, if not evil. Though evil isn't usually much of a stretch. And some of these people - the heathen bastards - even believe that religion perpetuates ignorance, poverty and subservience, if you can imagine that.

I don't know where they get such radical ideas. Probably from science.
 

bospress.net

www.bospress.net
Some people define religion as destructive and oppressive, if not evil. Though evil isn't usually much of a stretch. And some of these people - the heathen bastards - even believe that religion perpetuates ignorance, poverty and subservience, if you can imagine that.

I don't know where they get such radical ideas. Probably from science.

I picked up a religious tract from the 1840s the other day for a project that I'm working on. They have a tract called "Happy Negro", which is basically reinforcing their belief that the (enlightened of the) enslaved black people "understood" that it was their godly duty to be content with their enslavement as jebus would pay them all back in heaven. Frederick Douglas wrote a great piece on how religion was used as a tool in the south as a means to subdue the slaves. Frederick Douglass was almost certainly an atheist as he saw the centuries of oppression that christianity, as it was practiced in the american south, was used as a tool.
 

number6horse

okyoutwopixiesoutyougo
One of the most salient points that Malcom X made in his autobiography concerned Christianity... (paraphrasing here) "Why would slaves and descendants of slaves ever embrace the religion of their oppressors ?" Why there are any black Christian churches in existence is beyond me too.
 

number6horse

okyoutwopixiesoutyougo
Yeah, maybe so. The groove that the band hits at about 1:30 into this song makes me want to pick up the bass for Jesus.

 
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