avansc wrote:purely based on your last paragraph you have apparently no idea of what christianity is.
I fully understand that the New Testament overrules the Old Testament (except where it doesn't, which is chosen selectively and subjectively by the many different sects of Christians.) But you're right, with 30,000+ sects of Christianity, clearly it's not well-defined.
i find it so amusing that someone who claims to not believe in god, spends so much time on the subject. subscribed to videos about it, to forums dedicated to the subject..
This is another extremely common statement made against non-believers. "For someone who doesn't believe in God, you sure obsess about him a lot!"
If there's anything I obsess about, it's superstition affecting public policy, education, scientific literacy, etc. To me, this is a big deal.
in all my years of schooling in south africa and america, i have never once been told about religion (in south africa we did start and end the day with prayer, mmm, never had any shootings either.. i guess with your logic i can blame columbine, VT and the like on the lack of religion... see how dumb that is.)
Yes, you're demonstrating my point that it's foolish to assume that prayer or lack thereof has any effect on school violence. Thanks.
but you do play it off as if it is a norm for someone who is religious to be crazy, and "often" do things like what the WBC does.
How exactly do I "play it off"? Saying that religious groups often do crazy things (with varying levels of crazy, obviously: banning homosexuals is crazy, but less crazy than murdering rape victims) is not the same as saying that "most" or "almost all" religious people are crazy. The fact that it's common doesn't imply it's the majority, and likewise, the fact that it isn't the majority doesn't imply that it isn't common.
it just happens, however you target ones that have a religious concentration to it, and more specifically, a Christian concentration
Again, did you not read my last message? Yes, Christianity gets a disproportional amount of attention because it's the prevailing superstitious belief system in this country. But I give attention to any non-skeptical, irrational belief,
especially when it affects public policy. The entire anti-vaccination movement is a great example. Diseases like measles and mumps are making a comeback because of the unfounded belief that vaccines cause autism in children. I also criticize ghost stories, UFO abduction stories, psychic claims, faith healing (Christian or otherwise), psychic surgery, etc. But when was the last time our tax dollars were spent on a psychic surgery? I'm sorry, call me selfish but I'm going to spend more time worrying about the irrational beliefs that have more of a direct impact on America, right now. Hence, I'm going to stress
Texas' attempt to rewrite history to be more conservative-friendly (the school board's version of creating Conservapedia) while perhaps neglecting
more sinister crimes that happen in other countries.
So yes, you can accuse me of being ethnocentric and maybe even short-sighted, but saying that I have some sort of specific bias against Christianity is a hasty conclusion reached by purely superficial observation.
there are atheists who would harm someone purely because they are religious... there just are crazy people
True, these may exist, but remember the difference I pointed out? Many of the major religions including Christianity and Islam actively endorse harming those who do not believe (all New Testament handwaving aside). I agree that these people, whether religiously motivated or not, are crazy, but it's easy to act crazy when your basis of morality doesn't have any sort of rational foundation. Do you think that the Phelps children were all born crazy? No, it was their backwards indoctrination that turned them this way. Likewise, an atheist could be just as irrational as a violent Christian or Muslim. The point isn't to single out any particular religion, but irrational belief systems in general.
you think even 5% of those people do deplorable things because of their religion.
I couldn't even guess a number of this sort, neither am I even trying to. You're making a counter-argument for an argument I never made. I agree that most theists are perfectly normal people, no more harmless than average. If I ever refer to or imply high percentages, I'm probably talking about the percentage of people who hold particular irrational (and potentially harmful) beliefs, such as God creating man in his present form a few thousand years ago, or homosexuality being a sin. In America, it's shockingly high for the former (something around 30%, maybe higher). Why is this a problem? Because these people can vote, including votes which affect public education, and I think it's important that people who vote on such important matters have some sort of scientific literacy.
there are other things in this life that have much more effect on you, but you choose to pic this one subject
This is a fair observation, since I am definitely big on scientific literacy, skepticism, and critical thinking in general. I know other people who are equally big on physical fitness, or the environment, or economics. They're all important. I guess it depends on what you feel is most meaningful for whatever reason. To me, critical thinking / skepticism is something that is all-encompassing. Its employment affects all aspects of our life, including everything I just mentioned (the environment, politics, economics, education, etc.), and it seems sorely lacking in our society, from the workplace all the way up to the highest levels of government. As for "why I care so much", I don't know. Why does anyone care about anything? I suppose I could just ignore the problem and hope it goes away (don't get me wrong, I'm not above that in many cases.
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You act like its such an injustice to teach about religion in school
When have I ever said this? I think it's great to teach about world religions in schools; and I was glad to learn about them when I was in school. We just shouldn't be teaching a particular religion as the truth, obviously.
but i never hear you complain about REAL injustices, america doing NOTHING about genocides, about kids starving to death everyday
This is a completely fair criticism. There are a lot of horrors going on that I don't focus on at all, and maybe I would make more of an impact on the world if I focused on them instead of the prevalence of magical thinking. But for whatever reason, I see critical thinking as a "big deal" whose advocacy has far-reaching implications. And I feel that my lazy self can actually do something about it by simply talking. I will leave the other problems to the capable hands of those who accept my charity dollars. This, on the other hand, is something I can have a direct impact on while keeping my day job.
and bullshit like this just adds to it. 