I've seen so much good done by critical thinking. Carl Sagan was a huge influence on me regarding the use of valid reasoning and sufficient evidence to arrive at sound conclusions. In other words, he wrote of the importance of science and scientific thinking to advance human knowledge to be used as a tool to solve many of humanity's most pressing problems. I've found ever since I read some of his books and watched his Cosmos series on PBS that if I do veer from critical thought, then I make myself vulnerable to being deceived and deluded. Sure, believing what isn't true might bring me some short-lived happiness, but it never lasts long. I end up feeling like a fool with a scanter bank account.
So regarding religion, I've found that religion rarely if ever is isolated to the individuals who hold such beliefs. Christianity and many other religions teach their members to try to convert unbelievers to the faith. If those unbelievers resist conversion, then they are often denounced as reprobates and shunned, and social disruption is the result. It's happened to me several times in my life, at least three times in the last three years. Because religion causes these kinds of problems and many other kinds of problems for that matter, I feel it is my moral obligation to speak out against religion warning people of its attendant ills.
Recently an advocate of religion paid a visit here to this forum to ask why "atheists" are picking on those poor Christians whom he sees as happy people who just want to be left alone to feel the joy of their religion. It is very cruel to disabuse them of their beliefs here at IIDB! Why, they might learn the truth and give up those wonderful beliefs that made them so happy. They'll end up feeling sad as they face the reality of a world bereft of a loving father in the sky who some day will take them all there to live forever.
Oddly enough, though, he seemed to disapprove of our "secular religion" here at IIDB. Apparently not all presumably religious people have a right to be happy. If you are a critical thinker who is openly skeptical of religious claims, you are miserable or should be miserable! You are to keep your wretched doubt to yourself. Just logging on to this forum to critique religion constitutes a religion in its own right, and a dangerous cult-like religion at that. He sees us as fanatics identifying as infidels who dwell on religion daring to see error in religion that we feel obliged to correct. He sees all religion as "an intrinsic part of human cultures" and as such should be maintained and seen as good, but apparently the "religion of atheism" is an exception to that rule.
I feel many questions arise from these views. Why, exactly, do skeptics of religion need to keep their views to themselves while the religious are privileged to openly express them? Is that not a blatant double-standard? If religion really does bring happiness, a dubious claim, why is that happiness more important than knowing the truth? Are we to envy people who are happy even if we know they are being deceived? Would you envy a man lying in the gutter soiling his pants as he feels joy from the alcohol he just consumed? Aren't the ills of religion like that and are indeed in need of correction?
I won't be holding my breath waiting for clear, sensible, full and honest answers to these questions, but I thought that I needed to set the record straight on the alleged "sacred happiness" of the religious.
So regarding religion, I've found that religion rarely if ever is isolated to the individuals who hold such beliefs. Christianity and many other religions teach their members to try to convert unbelievers to the faith. If those unbelievers resist conversion, then they are often denounced as reprobates and shunned, and social disruption is the result. It's happened to me several times in my life, at least three times in the last three years. Because religion causes these kinds of problems and many other kinds of problems for that matter, I feel it is my moral obligation to speak out against religion warning people of its attendant ills.
Recently an advocate of religion paid a visit here to this forum to ask why "atheists" are picking on those poor Christians whom he sees as happy people who just want to be left alone to feel the joy of their religion. It is very cruel to disabuse them of their beliefs here at IIDB! Why, they might learn the truth and give up those wonderful beliefs that made them so happy. They'll end up feeling sad as they face the reality of a world bereft of a loving father in the sky who some day will take them all there to live forever.
Oddly enough, though, he seemed to disapprove of our "secular religion" here at IIDB. Apparently not all presumably religious people have a right to be happy. If you are a critical thinker who is openly skeptical of religious claims, you are miserable or should be miserable! You are to keep your wretched doubt to yourself. Just logging on to this forum to critique religion constitutes a religion in its own right, and a dangerous cult-like religion at that. He sees us as fanatics identifying as infidels who dwell on religion daring to see error in religion that we feel obliged to correct. He sees all religion as "an intrinsic part of human cultures" and as such should be maintained and seen as good, but apparently the "religion of atheism" is an exception to that rule.
I feel many questions arise from these views. Why, exactly, do skeptics of religion need to keep their views to themselves while the religious are privileged to openly express them? Is that not a blatant double-standard? If religion really does bring happiness, a dubious claim, why is that happiness more important than knowing the truth? Are we to envy people who are happy even if we know they are being deceived? Would you envy a man lying in the gutter soiling his pants as he feels joy from the alcohol he just consumed? Aren't the ills of religion like that and are indeed in need of correction?
I won't be holding my breath waiting for clear, sensible, full and honest answers to these questions, but I thought that I needed to set the record straight on the alleged "sacred happiness" of the religious.