--- sandeep heble <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > In his essay "Is There a God?� the great Philosopher > Bertrand Russell wrote: > > The history of religion has been that of conflict, violence, and one atrocity after another, all in the name of �God�.
Mario points out: Bertrand Russell was frequently quite delusional. While it is true that many conflicts have been, and are being, caused by religious zealots, let's not get carried away by the obvious anti-religious zealotry being displayed here. Some of the worst tyrants in history were anti-religious atheists, such as Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao Tse Tung, Fidel Castro, the Viet Cong, Pol Pot and Saddam Hussain. The post continues: Throughout its course, religion has been an impediment to human progress. Unlike a free society which flourishes with the advancement of knowledge, religion always harkens back to a previous age. It is founded on unchangeable dogma that has been established in a far distant past. Its fixed ideas and ideologies have become the enemy of progress. > It is no exaggeration to say that the future progress of human society will be impaired.... Mario points out again: The statements above are not only gross exaggerations worthy of a high school essay, but gross generalizations as well. While some religions and their corresponding attitudes have surely been an impediment to progress, primarily in the middle-east, the western societies, where most of the progress in recent decades has come from, have co-existed quite comfortably with religion. Not to mention the recent progress in India, where religion and science co-exist as well.
