We should treat some of the ancient religious societies with begrudging respect

[repoman]

I think that there needs to be a clear line between being exasperated at people still now believing in stories like Noah's Flood and our opinion of the intelligence of the people then. Maybe my point is so basic that it does not need to be stated, but having a more charitable attitude at least lets me be less angry. I mean these people have been dead for centuries, being angry is kind of irrational.

Showing respect to the people who wrote these stories, unless the moral codes of the stories were even more twisted than the prevailing zeitgeist of that time, will also go a long way to having good communication with theists. However, there is some question as to whether some of the writings were done by priestly classes as a way to solidify their power, and this makes me lose all respect for them. They just wanted the money, they were scum.

This respect means that theists won't be attacked by us as much in ways that cause them to shut down any possibility of deconverting. Many need to be coaxed out of it. Attacking the moral character of King David, for example, is a big mistake. His moral failings are the point of the story.

 

[bilby]

I think that there needs to be a clear line between being exasperated at people still now believing in stories like Noah's Flood and our opinion of the intelligence of the people then. Maybe my point is so basic that it does not need to be stated, but having a more charitable attitude at least lets me be less angry. I mean these people have been dead for centuries, being angry is kind of irrational.

Showing respect to the people who wrote these stories, unless the moral codes of the stories were even more twisted than the prevailing zeitgeist of that time, will also go a long way to having good communication with theists. However, there is some question as to whether some of the writings were done by priestly classes as a way to solidify their power, and this makes me lose all respect for them. They just wanted the money, they were scum.

This respect means that theists won't be attacked by us as much in ways that cause them to shut down any possibility of deconverting. Many need to be coaxed out of it. Attacking the moral character of King David, for example, is a big mistake. His moral failings are the point of the story.

Attacking the moral character of a fictionalised account of a person is a big mistake because it's pointless and stupid to act as though fictional things are real.

 

[repoman]

Ok, so let's say that the religions were just very persuasive literature and oral traditions with some added ideology and assumptions about the world and life after death.

What about attacking the storyline and characters of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged? What if we didn't know that Ayn Rand wrote them and millions of people in the future thought they were real people? That is What King David is now even to a lot of atheists, going into archaeology to show his biography is massively inflated is not a good way to deconvert many types of christians.

When we attack these ancient religious peoples for the lack of information that almost all other people back then also lacked it makes us look petty and stupid.

I want to limit my scorn to the celebration of genocide and other nasty attitudes because that is more useful. Laughing at them for thinking pi=3 is pathetic.