Fables and Catastrophes

Submitted by Pro-Israeli Atheist (United States), Jun 29, 2006 at 10:37

Once again, another broad, far-reaching example of what an obstacle religion in general is to the progress of a secular world. We are now dealing with this day in and day out everywhere, from America to China, to the Middle East, and to Europe. Is religion in general compatible with modernity??? I have serious doubts that it is. Over in Europe, secular liberals are being forced to bend over backwards for Islamic fundamentalism. We can see this in the cartoon controversy. As critical of Islam as I am, I have problems with other religions, too. I do not think Islamism is as immediate a threat in the US as it is in Europe. Instead, fundamentalist Christianity is a danger to everything that makes America great. One can see this in the growth of both the intelligent design and pro-life movements (each of which every secular modernizer should unite in order to defeat). For nearly 200 years now, the West (and the world) has been aware of how life began. God did not create man and then create jellyfish, avians, dinosaurs, therapsids, etc. It was a process of evolution that began with bacteria several billion years ago. Why are we trying to substitute fact with useless fable? I believe that Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Jainists, Bahais, and everyone else should be able to practice their religions freely. Without religion, though, would the following events have occurred:

* The Crusades

* The September 11th attacks

* The Centennial Olympic Park bombing

* The 30 years war

* The Spanish Inquisition

* The al-Qaeda attacks prior to and after 9/11

* The bombings of the marine barracks and US embassy in Beirut

* Columbus' genocide of Native Americans

* The Darfur crisis

* The conquest and genocide of the Inca and Maya

* and too many others to list.

So we can see that nearly every instance of war, genocide, or other tragedy in the world is rooted in religion. Thus, the question immediately rises: what role does religion play in the modern world? What role should it? How can the events of the Quran and Bible be true when we have an extensive fossil record proving the validity of evolution, and also demonstrating clearly that man was not created by God but instead evolved from bipedal primates? Why can't we embrace evolution and reality and see one another as equals. Why can't we pick up where the Enlightenment left off? Why can't we have freedom FROM religion, along with freedom OF religion? One thing is certain, if we had freedom FROM religion, we would stand a better chance of living in a world that is governed by peace and justice.

Both Jihad and the backwards "right to life" movement would go away. In its place will be a more progressive, happy, and just world. There will be no more Osama bin Ladens, Hassan Nasrallahs, Pat Robertsons, Jerry Falwells, etc. Meanwhile, our president would actually make a real effort towards fighting terror and helping downtrodden Americans, instead of shoving useless amendments condemning gay marriage down our throats for reasons rooted in theological and theocratic supersition while Iraq degenerates and our oceans drown our cities. The social conservative movement must be defeated, and with it all other movements towards politicized religion. They have no place in the west. They have no place in the world.

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