quote:Originally posted by tigrtrek:
Link
So you're saying the world will be a more rational place without religion? Maybe not.
There is some truth to that. In fact, there's not much I can disagree with in that article.
Great Britain is supposedly about 60% atheist. Despite that, a great many of them follow astrology and believe in fairies and trolls and practice all sorts of pseudoscience such as chiropractic and folk remedies. It is a strange dichotomy.
Because of that, I don't necessarily agree wholeheartedly with my atheist brethren when they say the world would be a better place without religion. I think the world would be a better place without the stupidity of fundamentalism that so many here represent.
Unfortunately, I don't think that is a realistic possibility. Fundies are incapable of being reasoned with. The best we can hope for is a continued push to keep our public schools secular (that means "neutral" with respect to a god and not "anti-god" as some stupid people claim). We need to teach science -- ALL the science and engineering and math and critical thinking.
If I were ruler of the world, I would certainly like to see a course on "moral philosophy" taught in all schools from the earliest ages but that, too, is just not realistic.
So I'll continue to rally against fundamentalism wherever I see it, change it when I can and continue to hope for a better day.