Winning the war against religion

[Super Nova]

I post this here because religion and politics is so intertwined.

Professor Richard Dawkins: we are winning the war against religion

Atheists are winning the war against religion, Richard Dawkins, the author of The God Delusion has said.

Professor Dawkins said it was now possible to go to a dinner party and assume no one was religious.

"I think on the whole we are winning," he told The Times. "We are all moving in the same direction. I get the feeling more and more that religion is being left behind."

"You do not have to be reticent in what you say. You do not have to look around and say, 'I hope I am not offending anyone'. You can pretty much speak your mind now in a way that you could not 50 years ago."

Prof Dawkins said he did not believe that religion had any moral value. "But I do believe it has had, historically, artistic value," he said.

His comments come a month after he became embroiled in a Twitter row after saying the last time Muslims contributed something worthwhile was during the Middle Ages.

He went on to argue that although Muslims were responsible for many achievements during the Dark Ages, including alchemy and algebra, their contribution since then was questionable.

At the launch of his memoir, An Appetite for Wonder, this week Prof Dawkins said he would like his legacy to consist of being known as a "lover of truth", and as "a believer in the possibility of discovering objective truth by scientific research".

He claimed to have some sympathy for the Anglican Church and to enjoy reading the Bible but condemned a small minority who he said were still ignorant of science.

He cited research which said some people in Britain believed humans coexisted with dinosaurs, he said.

Prof Dawkins made his name as an evolutionary biologist with his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene

I think any thinking person accepts there is NO God and the god bothers are nutters. The role of religion was critical for humanity early progress. providing a guide to how a community should live and be led. It introduced the first laws and the first explanations. Now it is just holding back human progress.

To the politics.

The religious extremist of Islam and even those Christians in the US need to have their influence in the state reduced or eliminated.

What chance do we have when the US president cannot get elected unless he pretended he has a faith in a non-existence entity. I sure Putin doesn't have this problem.

In "God we Trust" is just bollocks.

In "Science we Trust" is closer to how we really act and believe today. Even the religious rely on this to drive their improvements in living standards.

The world needs to move to a UN resolution that all countries need a clear separation of Religion and the State. Their right to believe in fairies to be a human right but the state has no part to play in it.

[Super Nova]

Try this site.

It is easy to prove to yourself that God is imaginary. The evidence is all around you. Here are 50 simple proofs.

http://godisimaginary.com/

[Super Nova]

The churches seeks to be more inclusive. I wonder if they see the threat.


Pope Francis reaches out to atheists and agnostics
The Pope has struck a surprisingly conciliatory tone towards atheists and agnostics, saying that God will "forgive" them as long as they behave morally and live according to their consciences.

The unprecedented gesture came as his incoming number two, the Vatican's newly-nominated secretary of state, said that the rule that priests should be celibate was not "a dogma of the Church" and could be open for discussion.

Francis, who has won praise for spontaneous and unusual moves during his six month papacy, wrote a lengthy letter to a newspaper, La Repubblica, which the Italian daily printed over four pages, including page one, under the simple byline "Francesco".

"God forgives those who obey their conscience," he wrote in the unprecedented letter, the latest example of the markedly different tone and style from his predecessors that he has set since being elected in March.

The 76-year-old pontiff was responding to editorials written in July and August by Eugenio Scalfari, an agnostic and the paper's founder, in which he was asked whether "the Christian God forgives those who do not believe and do not seek faith".

Mr Scalfari said he had not expected the South American pope to respond "so extensively and so affectionately, with such fraternal spirit".

The Pope wrote: "The question for those who do not believe in God is to follow their own conscience. Sin, even for a non-believer, is when one goes against one's conscience.

"To listen and to follow your conscience means that you understand the difference between good and evil."

He said that the "mercy of God has no limits" and encompassed even non-believers, but his remarks failed to impress the Italian Union of Atheists and Agnostics.

"Why should a non-believer seek legitimisation from the Pope?" the association asked.

It dismissed what it called the pontiff's "nice words" and said: "What interests non-believers is certainly not 'forgiveness' from an entity whose existence we do not trust."

The Pope's reaching out to atheists echoes a homily he delivered in May, when he said that even atheists could be welcomed into heaven. That declaration caused consternation among Vatican officials, with a spokesman later appearing to backtrack on the Pope's remarks, saying that people who do not believe in God "cannot be saved".

In a further sign that the Church is edging towards more openness, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, a Vatican diplomat who will next month become the Pope's deputy as secretary of state, said that the principle of celibacy among clergy was "ecclesiastical tradition" rather than "Church dogma" and therefore open to discussion.

The Pope has struck a more inclusive tone since taking over as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in March, notably reaching out to homosexuals on his return from a week-long trip to Brazil in July.

"If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" the Pope said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religio ... stics.html

[IQS.RLOW]

As more people turn from faith and their teachings (whatever faith that is) more will turn to the faith of the left (Gaia) because it is human nature to look for or worship a greater energy... which will be a disaster for society because leftist faith is about constriction and discipline of all to shifting vagaries while religious faith is about constriction of ones self to a doctrine and is personal.

(Note: I am a complete atheist)

[IQS.RLOW]

I think to win the war against all religion, be it leftism, Gaia, Moronism, Catholism etc you would have to start at proselytising.

[Super Nova]

I don't think we need to convert them, just remove them from the structures of government.... as a first step.

if they are too stupid to understand that superstition has no part to play in the running of the world, then converting them is not the place to start.

That's why there are so many wars at the moment.

Education is the way forward... that's the place to start. State controlled education where religion is a personal practice only.

[Super Nova]

Why are so many atheists critical of religion and theism? Not all are, and in fact some atheists are religious themselves, but it is common -- especially among secular, naturalistic atheists in the West. Atheists' reasons vary and include the belief that theism is wrong, irrational, and harmful, that religion has been a powerful force for violence and xenophobia in history, that secularism and liberation from theism and religion are necessary for social and political liberation generally, that supernatural beliefs retard social and scientific progress, and that supernatural religions have outlived their usefulness. [/u]

Not a balanced site but here is the source: http://atheism.about.com/od/doesgodexis ... ticism.htm

[IQS.RLOW]

I don't think we need to convert them, just remove them from the structures of government.... as a first step.

if they are too stupid to understand that superstition has no part to play in the running of the world, then converting them is not the place to start.

That's why there are so many wars at the moment.

Education is the way forward... that's the place to start. State controlled education where religion is a personal practice only.

The trouble is that the Gaia worshippers refuse to remove themselves from the structures of govt. In fact, they insist that the govt act to support their religion.

The carbon tax is case in point. A religious tax that does nothing but make those that believe feel good about punishing the 'sinners' whether they are 'sinners' or not.

I haven't heard the Catholics or Protestants asking for a economy wide tax to buy rosary beads- which is as effective to morality as a carbon tax is to climate.

[Rorschach]

I refuse to participate in religion bashing, due to your anti-religious bias, on a political site, SN.

[IQS.RLOW]

I refuse to participate in religion bashing, due to your anti-religious bias, on a political site, SN.

I don't know why you refuse to participate. As SN opined, politics and religion are intertwined as they are both faith based. Yet there is no issue with politics clubbing.

My issue is with those that declare themselves unsullied by religion yet subscribe to a religious belief in environmentalism and insist with far more vigour that the state should punish those who don't subscribe to their religion.

Plastic bag tax (crap) carbon tax (crap) etc etc etc.. The religion of environmentalism is far more intrusive than any other religion in the history of mankind.