What I want to know is: What weapons do we really have against religion? How can we make religious people question more and relly open their minds to the brilliant world of hard facts?
Well, it's worth mentioning that the countries in northern Europe is doing better than most, just look at this diagram. I know it's not strictly religion, it's "people who believe in evolution" which isn't necessarily the same thing, but it pretty much is. So I think it gives a pretty reasonable view of reality.
Some months ago, I made a post on Kolozzeum's träningsforum (a forum for weightlifters which handles alot more than weightlifting...), one of my most provocative statements ever I believe. What I said that no religious person (in modern society) can possibly be intelligent. What I mean is that it's one thing to believe in life after death if you lived at the time of Jesus first coming, but to put your right hand on the bible and swear oath in 2012 is something very different. You can't possibly imagine the inferno that rose from this statement. How this discussion happened is one thing (I might write about it some day), but the question I asked myself was: When you meet someone who's so deep in faith that he dismisses all known facts and rational thinking, how can you talk some sense into him? Is it even possible? What weapons do we have?
My goal in life has never been to make anyone free of religion, you're free to be as religious as you want as long as you follow George Carlin's first commandment: "Thou shall keep thy religion to thyself!". And bare in mind, I will categorize you as an idiot if you are.
What I want from religious people is for them to openly discuss their faith and really tries to explain why I'm so better off believing. I also require them to actually listen to my thoughts in the same way that they expect me to listen to theirs. If their religion is the one true religion, then it should be very easy for them, right? My main problem with religion is that they don't seek the truth, they just want a quick and easy answer. In the words of Richard Dawkins: "I'm against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world."
If I question the existence of God in front of a Christian because they can't prove his/her existance, they play the card that I can't prove that he/she doesn't exist. How can we really reach into a mind when the people is covering his/her ears and screaming LALALALALA?
There's so many questions that I want to ask to the religious, but they just don't want to answer, or maybe they simply can't. They say that they will pray for me and that it's never too late to accept Jesus as my saviour. Please help me. I SINCERELY want to understand. I want to understand how a grown up and well educated individual still can have medieval beliefs? How can I reach out to someone who thinks the concept of one man flying around the world and dropping presents down a chimney is absurd while one man who lives in the sky who hears everyones murmurs makes perfect sense? Where's the line to idiocy?
Alright, let's wrap it up. I like some ideas from the bible. I'm buying the argument regarding Jesus just wanting to teach people how to behave etc, sure that's ok. What I don't understand is why we must build this concept around punishment. Do we really need to be indoctrinated to fear of misbehaving in order to behave? Do we need this constant threat? Are we really that primitive?
Maybe we could be a little more creative and modern in our ways of teaching out ethics and morality?
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