Remember the scene from Life of Brian? "Crucifixion or Freedom?" Choose carefully. Or to put it another way, "Tea and Cake or Death?" That's your option. A nice cuppa with a piece of moist chocolate cake with icing, or suffer the most horrible of deaths.
Think carefully, and chose. That's where my post will leave you. To get there, you just need to read the beginning bit. The beginning bit isn't this bit, it's the bit after this. Actually it starts just here:
Is all religion bad? Is all politics bad? The broad brush of terms like religion and politics make such thoughts weak. As weak as the rather old chestnut: "Some people do bad things in the name of their religion. Therefore all religion is bad."
There's another chestnut to answer with this question too. The idea that atheists don't conduct mass murder in the name of atheism, therefore atheism is the only moral alternative to religion (assuming all religion is bad, of course). Hey, that's not my logic. I'm just responding to it.
My response will not be delivered in one large, carefully thought out treatise. My answers will be delivered according to the medium of the blog. Brief, simple, occasional, and reliant on reasonable commenters to flesh the detail out.
Cake or Death? We'll get there.
Are all religions equal? Are all political ideologies destructive? What makes atheists dangerous? What makes people dangerous? If we have to fear something delivered by mad people using God or Atheist Ideology as their justification, then I suggest Totalitarianism is the word to be wary of. Atheists don't kill in the name of atheism. Why would they, when you look at the definition of the word?
If we could define a secular religion, it would have to be the religion of totalitarianism. Take your flavour - fascism or communism. Both brands have killed millions upon millions of people.
Sure, there is also religious totalitarianism. See the word that has come up in both discussing both political ideology and religious ideology?
What kind of monsters believe they are so right in their beliefs, they can kill millions. Irrespective of the reasons? The answer is not particularly palatable. It will come, in part, in an upcoming post.
Cake or Death? That is the question we are faced in this post.
Are all religious people extreme? To say all religions are equal is preposterous. To say all fundamentalist extremists are operating on the same moral level as the Christians running the city soup kitchen is preposterous. Let's answer that question now.
Cake or Death
There's no Church of England fundamentalism. We can't have Church of England fundamentalism. You know, like they have Islamic fundamentalism. Jihad! … Ah ha … Church of England fundamentalism is impossible because you can't have: "You must have tea and cake with the vicar... or you die!"
Related Link: Tea and Cake or Death?
Think carefully, and chose. That's where my post will leave you. To get there, you just need to read the beginning bit. The beginning bit isn't this bit, it's the bit after this. Actually it starts just here:
Is all religion bad? Is all politics bad? The broad brush of terms like religion and politics make such thoughts weak. As weak as the rather old chestnut: "Some people do bad things in the name of their religion. Therefore all religion is bad."
There's another chestnut to answer with this question too. The idea that atheists don't conduct mass murder in the name of atheism, therefore atheism is the only moral alternative to religion (assuming all religion is bad, of course). Hey, that's not my logic. I'm just responding to it.
My response will not be delivered in one large, carefully thought out treatise. My answers will be delivered according to the medium of the blog. Brief, simple, occasional, and reliant on reasonable commenters to flesh the detail out.
Cake or Death? We'll get there.
Are all religions equal? Are all political ideologies destructive? What makes atheists dangerous? What makes people dangerous? If we have to fear something delivered by mad people using God or Atheist Ideology as their justification, then I suggest Totalitarianism is the word to be wary of. Atheists don't kill in the name of atheism. Why would they, when you look at the definition of the word?
If we could define a secular religion, it would have to be the religion of totalitarianism. Take your flavour - fascism or communism. Both brands have killed millions upon millions of people.
Sure, there is also religious totalitarianism. See the word that has come up in both discussing both political ideology and religious ideology?
What kind of monsters believe they are so right in their beliefs, they can kill millions. Irrespective of the reasons? The answer is not particularly palatable. It will come, in part, in an upcoming post.
Cake or Death? That is the question we are faced in this post.
Are all religious people extreme? To say all religions are equal is preposterous. To say all fundamentalist extremists are operating on the same moral level as the Christians running the city soup kitchen is preposterous. Let's answer that question now.
Cake or Death
There's no Church of England fundamentalism. We can't have Church of England fundamentalism. You know, like they have Islamic fundamentalism. Jihad! … Ah ha … Church of England fundamentalism is impossible because you can't have: "You must have tea and cake with the vicar... or you die!"
Related Link: Tea and Cake or Death?