Richard Dawkins on why religious faith tends to create more evil people than, say, Stalinism

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1162034470474&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724 ^

[zippy the razor]

How do you answer critics who say your book ignores the evils of anti-religious ideologies such as Stalinism?

It's a misunderstanding. I never simply list evil deeds by evil people. There are evil deeds done by the non-religious as well as the religious.

But that's not really the point. The point is whether religious faith is more likely to make people evil — and I suspect it is.

Of course, not every religious person does bad things. But I think if you are brought up to think there is something called faith that cannot be questioned, and that it is bad manners to question, then that paves the way for a few extremists to feel justified in doing their terrible acts.

[Schweinhund]

Isn't that just the same with non-religious ideologies?

[tomzz]

Without religion, you don't even have a working definition of what evil is, much less any reason for avoiding it.

[paudio]

The two world wars and the cold war were not religious wars. Yet, they killed way more people than any other war. Not to mention the institutional or state-sponsored oppressions such as in the Soviet Union, or China.

[bvw]

Eating creates more bad people. Proof: Every evil person is an eater. Not every bad person is religious. Therefore eating creates more bad, evil people than religion. QED.

[bdfromlv]

The faith is an personal belief related to a supreme being and our ability to do unselfish good. The evil is done by humans that think they are allowed make others think the way they do.

[Tax-chick]

This guy is making atheistic "scientists" look bad.

[aruanan]

Richard Dawkins on why religious faith tends to create more evil people than, say, Stalinism

He's just doing what he has always done: he very carefully, and to his own advantage, redefines things to suit his argument. He is an intellectually subverted individual. The ruin of his science is not too far off. There is more faith than that limited to the "religious" and there are more religions than theistic ones. The anti-theistic religions of the 20th century have brought more evil to more people than all other religions throughout history--though Islam is a close second.

[mkjessup]

I recall an old saying which goes something like:

"Religion is man attempting, but failing to reach God. Jesus Christ is God successfully reaching man."

[aruanan]

The faith is an personal belief related to a supreme being and our ability to do unselfish good. The evil is done by humans that think they are allowed make others think the way they do.

Faith is a belief in any system that one believes answers or could answer the basic questions about life, the universe, and everything. Faith is one's commitment to this system. Religious faith is just a small subset of this faith.

[JillValentine]

Reading the interview, I see that the "author" (who claims to be anti-religious fundamentalism) makes a snide attack on President Bush (who is the world leader who is currently doing the most to defeat religious extremism and hatred).

If the Islamofascists ever take over the West, atheists (like this "author"), feminists, and homosexuals will be the first ones sent to meet Allah.

Am I the only one who sees the irony here?

[subterfuge]

It's funny how people of know faith are clueless about what having faith is really all about. This author is lost.

[JCEccles]

This guy is making atheistic "scientists" look bad.

That isn't hard to do. A more intolerant, self-righteous, and bigoted group of people is hard to imagine, outside of Islam anyway.

[tioga]

The devil is the master of delusion.

[subterfuge]

People of "NO" faith...sheesh.

[shezza]

It depends on whom you worship, actually.

[bvw]

Islam a close second? Maybe. In any case it is the High Church of Secularism that by its control of the media, bureaucratic, academic and literary elites has ALLOWED, if not encouraged, the rise of the bloody victimology cult of Islam. Case in point: Rachel Corrie, the girl, the play, the playwright and the boosters of same.

[IronJack]

Yes, because everyone knows that HAVING a moral framework by which your actions are judged begets greater evil than the ABSENCE of any such framework.

These are the same people who go south to the North Pole, who face west for the sunrise, and who roll in the mud to clean themselves.

[Buffalo Head]

Please explain how “having faith” is different than self hypnosis.

[tickmeister]

Can you think of any evil doer who invoked eating as a justification for his evil in the way that current Muslims use their faith? Do you know af anybody who shouted "Eating is great" while cutting off someones head (Other than maybe Jeffery Dahmer).

I don't know the actual head count (pun intended) but I would bet that religion has been the justification for more murder and mayhem than economic theory, which would be a close second.