From: everything-list@googlegroups.com
[mailto:everything-list@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of John Clark
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 11:20 AM
To: everything-list@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Atheist
Salman Rushdie wrote:
> religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere
> innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of
> religion in the fashionable language of "respect". What is there to respect
> in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily
> around the world in religion's dreaded name?
It is the liberal consensus that we should always respect all religious beliefs
regardless of how stupid or cruel it is; for example tune into just about any
international news broadcast and you will probably see at least one story about
religious violence somewhere in the world, but the media won't call it that,
the media will call it "sectarian violence". As for me I think there is a point
beyond which a euphemism becomes a lie.
John K Clark
I would describe it as a societal paradigm… this unspoken rule that all should
respect religion. It dominates both the political right as well as the left.
Religion is a useful tool to power structures (when it is not the power
structure itself); religion serves the interests of central authority. Emperor
Constantine and the Roman imperial elites of the time have as much (or more
perhaps some argue) than any mythical prophet, to do with the evolution of a
loose set of scattered stories into an organized imperial state religion united
under the crucifix (and conveniently the emperor as well).
You would probably describe me as being liberal, but I certainly do not ascribe
to any dictum that I respect the institution of or practice of religion. Quite
frankly I do not. Especially organized religion, which is a lot like organized
crime IMO, sharing with it many of the same characteristics and practices. A
few examples of some shared characteristics: murdering (or shunning) those who
attempt to leave; murdering (or marginalizing) the competition (very mob like
behavior); demanding protection money from those under its control – the tithes
to the church are they really that different from protection money to the local
gang boss. I could go on, the ways in which religion and organized crime
operate is quite numerous.
Chris
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