Tele- Don't worry- I would have looked like a fool to debate, so thanks :cheers:
Daegus- Thank you for the link, -very informative actually. You and Tele are right, I have not been substantially prepared. I just saw him in earlier posts writing some really stupid stuff.. look:
Its always safer to remain in the herd. Most people must be told how to think and the religions of the world make sure they hardwire their young at an early age.
“Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told – and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. … We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.”
– Michael Crichton
... Its simple, as Carl Sagan's famous quote states, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". It took many years of doubt and contemplation for me to shed the chains of religious brainwashing. I was 'saved' in a fundamentalist church after viewing a most horrendous film about hell when I was 7 years old. Nice.
I don't feel religion, including but not limited to, the Christian one, is true, or kind, or moral. The fact that the saviour of the world appeared in a remote and illeterate part of the world to save mankind seems strange to me. Vicarious redemption allows for the Christian follower to behave as horrible to his/her fellow man as they wish as long as they ask for forgiveness at the end of the day. The same reasoning makes care for the planet irrelevant to the faithful because of the 'rapture'. I feel religion is not only a primitive practice, but an immoral one that allows good people to commit divinely sanctioned atrocities.
I wish secularism was a religion so we would have massive funding, tax exempt status and a united voice, but we are as Richard Dawkins said, like herding cats.
Free thought requires no dogma, no sacred texts, no control.
Does this shoe fit?