Dragaera

The Great Debate....to DDB

Fri Nov 29 01:53:16 PST 2002

At 12:21 AM 11/29/2002 -0800, Caliann the Elf wrote:

> > If religion is harmful, does it necessarily follow that the absence
>of
> > religion is beneficial?
>
>Relatively, yes.
>
>**************************************************************************************
>
>Please elaborate on this, I may have misread it.  Does this mean that if 
>we kill off everyone that has a belief in the supernatural and burn every 
>copy of any kind of scripture, we will have the ability to achieve Utopia?

That's sort of an extreme jump, isn't it?  To say that absense of poverty 
is beneficial does not imply that we should kill all poor 
people.  (Hmmm.  On the other hand, killing all *rich* people has a lot 
going for it, as long as I get to define "rich".)

>
>
>For me the real bottom-line argument is that religion, any religion,
>is *false*.  Basing your life on a falsehood is bad.
>
>**************************************************************************************
>
>So are you telling those in this forum that if they *do* believe in a 
>religion, there entire lives are false?  If they disagree with you, it's 
>only because they have been brainwashed by religion and are therefore "bad"?

Again, you are over-stating.  If you hold one false belief, it does not 
imply that your whole life is lie.  If that were true, everyone would be 
living a lie except me.



>
>
>Very mildly.  But they're still encouraging people to believe things
>on faith rather than evidence, for example, and that's bad.  People do
>far to little thinking.
>
>**************************************************************************************
>
>Clarify this for me please, are you saying that those that follow a 
>religion don't think?

Let's not say everyone.  Let us speak of someone who says, "I believe.  I 
believe purely on faith."  Now, would you say that this person, on this 
subject, is thinking?