I would add that the religious impulse in essentially universal, present in even the most zealous secular humanists, where, bereft of humility and conscience, it finds form in horror, a twisted perversion of itself.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
This is an excellent article. He looks at the question from a different perspective, and I don’t think there’s a thing he says that could be contradicted.
I would add that the religious impulse in essentially universal, present in even the most zealous secular humanists, where, bereft of humility and conscience, it finds form in horror, a twisted perversion of itself.
Just think - if there is no God then why bother with AIDS in Africa since it will just wipe out the population and we can then take it over and plunder the resources. We don’t need to worry about the poor or the diseased since they take up so much of the Federal budget.
And we sure don’t need to drop a dime in foreign aid or bother trying to stop drug use - or put up with Madonna music!!!!
Hell, let’s just become atheists and destroy the democrat party!!!!
Without God - I can do what I want and not feel guilty about it!
It does certainly seem to suggest that if man continues in the direction of enlightenment, his religious practice may, in the end, attain some semblance of human decency.
bump
"Secularism" and "atheism" are not the same.