Religion: The Root of All Evil?
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Some interesting readings to start your cyber day:
Via Channel 4: In this two-part Channel 4 series, Professor Richard Dawkins challenges what he describes as ‘a process of non-thinking called faith’. Dawkins is well known for bringing to a wide audience the complex scientific concepts that underpin evolution. His first book, The Selfish Gene was an international bestseller.
Truth lies and faith
He describes his astonishment that, at the start of the 21st century, religious faith is gaining ground in the face of rational, scientific truth. Science, based on scepticism, investigation and evidence, must continuously test its own concepts and claims. Faith, by definition, defies evidence: it is untested and unshakeable, and is therefore in direct contradiction with science.
In addition, though religions preach morality, peace and hope, in fact, says Dawkins, they bring intolerance, violence and destruction. The growth of extreme fundamentalism in so many religions across the world not only endangers humanity but, he argues, is in conflict with the trend over thousands of years of history for humanity to progress – to become more enlightened and more tolerant.
At the extremes
He explores the state of the three Abrahamic religions in the world today, from the political influence of rich and powerful Christian fundamentalist institutions in America to the deadly clash of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Middle East. He describes the Holy Land as the least enlightened place in the world, a microcosm of the threat to rational values and civilisation posed by religion, whose irrational roots, he says, are nourishing intolerance and murder.
There are plenty of characters to illustrate his thesis. There are fanatics, like the former West Bank settler who has taken the small step of converting from Jewish fundamentalist to Muslim fundamentalist, transferring his hatred from one side of the looking glass to the other. And the frighteningly charismatic leader of America’s National Association of Evangelicals, who believes he has been chosen by God to convert Americans through religious gatherings that resemble rock concerts – though to Dawkins they feel more reminiscent of Nuremberg rallies.
Then there are the desperate, like those carrying burdens of disability or disease, who are among the 80,000 people a year who make the pilgrimage to Lourdes. Dawkins does the maths: out of the millions who, over a century, have placed their faith in a miracle restoring them to good health, there have been only 66 authenticated cures. This is hardly a strong record, he says, arguing that it is better for us to embrace truth than false hope.
Download both parts of the documentary via BitTorrent: The Root of All Evil? (1.59 GB)
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14 Comments on “Religion: The Root of All Evil?”
The love of money is the root of all evil, according to the Bible. At another place it says ‘the lust of the eyes, the lust of the heart, and the pride of life (lust, envy and pride). We all have it, we all know it, we all either battle it through our faith or give up.
Many who would like to cover their own personal evils by saying it is really religion’s problem. I am a person of faith, but certainly not mindless. In fact, I think it takes more faith to believe that someday we are going to figure it all out.
I wonder if there has ever been a civilization that didn’t have some sort of belief system? Where does he have a model for comparision? Communism?
Communism (or Marxism) is another Abrahamic religion. It simply made the small step from monotheism to atheism, but the intolerance, the urge to convert everyone and change the world, the belief in a coming millennium are all the same.
The resemblance between the mindless verbiage spouted by Communist apparatchiks and the equivalent verbiage from Islamic clerics is startlingly close - meaningless jargon with threatening undertones.
It’s actually a good and fairly informative watch; you do not even have to be firmly on either side of the fence to watch it. An open mind and tolerance however are highly recommended. One interesting note: to say that religion has been the tool most used for evil, is not the same as saying religion is evil. In my opinion the former is a fact hard to deny for anyone who is honest with themselves and in touch with reality, but this has no bearing what so ever on the second point, they are philosophically mutually exclusive.
Keko, I didn’t catch the difference as I wasn’t able to watch the whole thing (I’ll try my hubby’s computer). Religion has undeniably been used as a tool for evil, as has government, at the hands of evil men; and even good men whose desire for power and wealth became controlling.
without religion evil would prevail. Religion fights evil, but in periods of clash between religion and evil extremism emerges.
But at the same time religion breeds evil.
The old “I am right,you are wrong attitude”.
I am not religious but I agree with the basics of all religions.
I now find that all (almost) religions are becoming intolerant.
It’s ‘religious’ people who are becoming intolerant in the same way as some political groups are becoming intolerant.I think religion has been transformed into a political tool.
It’s not religion that is to blame. It’s people who use religion to serve their own particular and egoistic purposes who are to blame.
Without religion there would be NO evil - ONLY violations of personal freedom.
Religion is based on beliefs (opinion) and not on knowledge (facts). EVIL is purely SUBJECTIVE as it is defined by religion, which itself is nothing but organized distribution of the same SUBJECTIVE OPINIONS on a list of topics.
If I killed somebody, then it would be a FACT that I violated his/her personal freedom, but it would be a SUBJECTIVE matter of OPINION whether I did it because I am a bad person, because I am a hero/good person, or if it was because of evil circumstances. It would be a FACTUAL matter that it was an action of self-defense, a deliberate action, or an accidental action, but only one of the three would be a FACT.
To preserve law and order in a civilized society it is necessary to find out which of the three options is a FACT, but it would be IMPOSSIBLE (that the person is dead and how he/she died can be scientifically proven, but the reason why cannot). Therefore, the closest one can come is to ask a judge or a jury for their OBJECTIVE OPINION based on which of the three options is the MOST LIKELY. Good, bad or evil is irrelevant, because that would be based on SUBJECTIVE OPINION and therefore it would be equally likely and unlikely at the same time.
Any religion bases its directives on what is desirable and not desirable according to that particular group of organized opinions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism…), but those judgements are SUBJECTIVE OPINIONS and not FACTS. The existence of God (any of them) cannot and may never be scientifically proven, so at this point in time it is a FACT that religion is superstition.
Condemnation (intolerance) of the actions of somebody else is OFTEN a negative byproduct of religious superstition, but NOT ALWAYS. As it is NOT FACTUAL to say that religion guarantees intolerance, claiming whether religion is desirable or not desirable can only be a SUBJECTIVE OPINION.
OBJECTIVELY (MOST LIKELY), violations of personal freedom regardless of the form are NOT DESIRABLE. Therefore, it is the PEOPLE with SUBJECTIVE justifications of violations of the personal freedom of others who are NOT DESIRABLE - regardless of their religious superstition.
As bigots declare their intention to force everybody to believe in the superstition of their preference, it is my OBJECTIVE OPINION that they intend to violate the personal freedom of me and others. Therefore, it is my SUBJECTIVE OPINION that bigots are very very bad, maybe I will go so far as to call them EVIL!
Tamim,
Objectively, religion IS politics (the art or science of government) and it is the oldest form of politics. In essense, the main purpose of even pre-historic religions was to define a framework for how people should live together in the tribe, village, nation, country…
That is why political bigots, like the Bush, are the most dangerous and intolerant, because they claim that God, Batman, or some other supernatural being that is hard to argue with has sanctioned their politics.
God,
What I have tried to say in a few words over the years and never have been able to convey, you have said in your entry.
Thank you, Thomas a Dane
The problem is not that religion itself is evil.
The problem is that it is so subjective depending on who is interpreting it, Take a simple verse from the bible “If one strikes you on the right, turn your left” I believe that it was meant to say that you forgive. but of course it could be interpreted in deferent way, for instance in those days, men wore their swords on the left side, so the statement could have meant that if someone hits you then use your sword, there are many examples like this one in every so called holly book out there.
The problem is that people try to apply instructions given to a deferent culture and society with values and even language that has long past.
It will never work
We need to just let it go….
“I have witnessed about 7 circumcisions and they made me feel quite ill.”
Were they catholics?.. Did you happen to witness what the nun and priest do to the baby just after circumcision?.. It took a lot of depth memory exploration for me to finally see the memories of what the nun and priest did to me behind a locked door… They held a frightening grotesque porcelain wall plaque in front of me of their “chopped-out christ’s sacred heart with a wreath of bleeding thornes”, then the nun applied an anesthetic soaked bit of gauze on my extremely painful freshly skinned penis, and they covered my head with a piece of thin cloth, but a wrinkle let me see some of what they were doing… The priest bent over me, and pressed his lips over my penis a moment… That’s how they infect a baby with their cosmic worm “Opus-d Virus”… THOSE CATHOLICS ARE TOTALLY ABSOLUTELY INSANE EVIL, doing those vile things to millions of our babies all around the world, to perpetuate their insane fagot religion money-sucking/penis-sucking scam…
Those EVIL DEMONS should NOT be permitted to get even Near Our Precious Babies…
WAKE UP WORLD! THOSE VILE DEMONS ARE SEXUALLY MOLESTING YOUR BABIES… No wonder humanity has gone Insane, and is trying to make peace with wars… Christianity is a Mind-Disease…