The New Atheists: Researchers Crusade against American Fundamentalists (EuroPress Alert)

Der Spiegel Online ^ | October 26, 2006 | Jörg Blech

[Jacob Kell]

In the United States, atheists are becoming an ostracized minority. But now evolutionary biologists are trying to turn the tables: According to their argument, religion is the source of evil. Morals and selflessness are not God-given - they are the result of evolution.

When Richard Dawkins, a zoologist at Oxford University, steps up to the altar he seems visibly pleased to see the pews in the church fully occupied. In the best Queen's English, he reads from his book: "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

[Yaelle]

Wow. The Soviets did it. They won Western Europe without using any of their arsenal.

[muawiyah]

Whereas, I suppose someone who simply likes to kill, sans ideology, is better ~ right?

[muawiyah]

Only makes sense to those who think of religion as a crutch. For those who don't, it's probably best we toss the irreligious aside to wallow in their own filth ~ just pass on by eh!

[muawiyah]

You could make a list ~ they are called Legion

[Just mythoughts]

It is just you, I believe the Creator created this universe and each individual soul and then these flesh bodies to house each individual soul for a time.

The science abounds for the handiwork of the Creator, including this earth and its inhabitants, those who stood against Him, those who could not make up their minds, and those who stood for Him alllll those many eons ago.

[WildHorseCrash]

Whereas, I suppose someone who simply likes to kill, sans ideology, is better ~ right?

What? No, killing for any irrational reason, be it religion or ideology, is equally evil, stupid and foolish. And history is replete with evil, stupid, and foolish people killing themselves and others because of religion. An atheist might become a mass murderer, but he doesn't kill because his atheism tells him to, he kills because he believes in some other foolish irrational belief, like communism. The religious mass murder, by contrast, does so specifically because he believes that killing is sanctioned by God and religion.

[Just mythoughts]

A murderer is a murderer no matter what the excuse.

[WildHorseCrash]

Only makes sense to those who think of religion as a crutch. For those who don't, it's probably best we toss the irreligious aside to wallow in their own filth ~ just pass on by eh!

Well, that's about all I would expect from someone like you. After all, if someone doesn't agree with your fantasy world view, just toss them aside. They're not worthy of respect, right? They wallow in filth, right? Why, you should go the one step further, like your forefathers did, and burn them at the stake, or torture them to death, or gas them and put them in the ovens.

[WildHorseCrash]

A murderer is a murderer no matter what the excuse.

That is true. But if some irrationalities like religion have been repeatedly and regularly the cause of such murders in history, it behooves any wise society to examine that irrationality to see what step are necessary to counter these murderous results.

[gidget7]

Some very keen observations there, Sir.

[dr_lew]

Pythagoras' argument, as per Ovid, was entirely moral, based on compassion for the slaughtered beast, as well as the degrading effect that meat-eating has on the practitioner.

When you place the flesh of slaughtered cattle in your mouths, know and feel, that you are devouring your fellow-creature

[gidget7]

"Only makes sense to those who think of religion as a crutch. For those who don't, it's probably best we toss the irreligious aside to wallow in their own filth ~ just pass on by eh!"



LOL muawiyah! And touche'

For most of us, our faith is anything but a crutch, in fact it is freeing. As in Freedom!

[gidget7]

"When you place the flesh of slaughtered cattle in your mouths, know and feel, that you are devouring your fellow-creature"


You go ahead and "know" that. LOL Most people know, realize, that man is a carnivore. There is a balance of nature, and we are part of it.

[WildHorseCrash]

For most of us, our faith is anything but a crutch, in fact it is freeing. As in Freedom!

Well, too many religious people see faith as the key to freedom from self reflection, from rational thought, from thinking for themselves, from inquisitiveness, etc.

[WildHorseCrash]

Most people know, realize, that man is a carnivore.

Man is an omnivore. (And, in modern society, more a scavenger than a carnivore...)

[WildHorseCrash]

Most people know, realize, that man is a carnivore.

Man is an omnivore. (And, in modern society, more a scavenger than a carnivore...)

[Just mythoughts]

Religion is a belief system and is NOT limited to the religion of Christianity. The Old Testament is filled with wars at the guidance of the Almighty Creator and every time those children took upon themselves to fight with out that Divine oversight they lost BIG TIME.

Atheist-ism is a religion as well no matter what the claim to the contrary. Religion is the reality in which a person lives their lives whether it by science or of a God/'gods' known or unknown.

Fundamentally speaking either the Bible is a truth or allll is up for grabs.

[gidget7]

freedom from self reflection???????? Are you kidding me?? Our faith is all about self reflection, and how to make ourselves into Godly creatures. What kind of religious people are you around to make yous Say that??

[WildHorseCrash]

Religion is a belief system and is NOT limited to the religion of Christianity. The Old Testament is filled with wars at the guidance of the Almighty Creator and every time those children took upon themselves to fight with out that Divine oversight they lost BIG TIME.

As one would expect, as the Old Testament is designed to further the worship of that deity. Obviously, the people who made those stories up aren't going to make their God look powerless. They wrote it to make people believe that they cannot do anything themselves. This idea is featured in most, if not all, religions.

Atheist-ism is a religion as well no matter what the claim to the contrary.

LOL. Well, since there is no such thing as "Atheist-ism," you very well may be right. Atheism, on the other hand, is not a religion, but the absence of religion.

Religion is the reality in which a person lives their lives whether it by science or of a God/'gods' known or unknown.

Well, if that is how you chose to define the word. But most people don't agree with that definition. Indeed, most people would, at a minimum, require a believe in the supernatural, divine, or the sacred. Atheists don't believe in such things.

Fundamentally speaking either the Bible is a truth or allll is up for grabs.

Or the Muslims are correct, or the Hindus, or the Ancient Greeks and Romans, or the animists are right, or the Wiccans, or the Buddhists, or...

[OriginalIntent]

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