Thursday 10 April 2008

Juggling with Kittens

Well last night I debated on the motion ‘Religion should be given respect’ I was speaking against you might have guessed. Speaking for the motion was Tom, a Christian, a brave decision on his behalf as this was a Liverpool Humanist Group Meeting.

The usual weak arguments for religion were trotted out one of which caused a great deal of outrage and anger which I will briefly deal with it now.

Without religion there would be no morality.

A nonsensical and insulting argument. The Bible, Koran, Tora may have many ‘nice’ stories but they are more than compensated by numerous passages of the most awful morality.
A classic I read the other day was Kings 2. Elijah had parted the waves of a river (God loves that trick) then gives him a ride on a chariot of fire (Yawn). The interesting bit is were a group of children take the Mick out of Elijah because he has a bald head (Probably ancient Hoodies). Anyway for this ridicule God sent 2 bears to kill all 42 of the children. Now that’s justice god style he probably said on completion "I’ll be back.." A very very moral tale I’m sure you will agree.

This is just one example there are innumerable examples of Godly Petulance and of course Godly Genocide within the good book but I won’t bore you all with them here that’s a priest or Mullahs job.

Christian fundamentalists would have no problem with the Kings 2 passage. The book is THE WORD OF GOD. Less ignorant Christians would though. Fundamentalists are easy to deal with – just ridicule these deluded fools. Less ignorant, non-literal Christians are more slippery customers. They are eelish.

‘Liberal’ less ignorant Christians would argue that the bible should not be taken literally. One should just believe the nice bits. It’s a bit like saying; forget the death camp and the millions killed in the war by Hitler– but let's accentuate the positive. He did make the trains run on time and invented the VW Beetle.

There were unbelievably cruel evil experiments done on the victims in the death camps that even today the results of which would benefit the understanding of the human body. Quite rightly the UN has stopped the use of these results not because of their intrinsic worth but because ethically it would be wrong and an insult to those that were tortured and killed to achieve them. Should we just forget the bad bits and look for the nice bits? I don’t think so.
Religion gives a veneer of respectability to a lot of corrosive attitudes in our society – homophobia and sexism to name but two but there are plenty more’

So next time one of these less ignorant Christians give you the benefit of their deluded opinion ask them the question that will always stump them.

Name one thing that is morally good in your holy book that is dependent on God?

Goodness is dependent on humanity.

My advice dear readers is, give religion the respect it deserves!

And if you have to debate with one remember its easier to juggle with kittens.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

so where do you and other atheists get your morals from? guess you make up your own rules, to suit yourselves. That's self-righteousness. None of us are righteous in the eyes of God. None of our works are worthy of a ticket to heaven. Why the bitterness against God, why not get to know him and if you want to understand the Bible then go learn from someone who gets it- atheists don't get it, at all.

David Thomas said...

Bill- Jesus commanded us to love our neighbour. Is this a requirement for atheists and if so, why? Who decides that it is?

Quantum_Flux said...

Please tell the McCain/Palin Campaign (preferrably politely) why teaching creationism in our public schools around America is superstitious and is not in our nation's best interests. These are the feelers McCain has out there, the way in which Americans can have a voice and be heard by his campaign:

Contact his campaign directly here:

http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/

Or go to his blogs and leave a polite message about the subject matter wherever appropriate:

http://www.johnmccain.com/blog/

Remember, McCain does a lot of things right and is a great heroic war veteran who genuinely puts his country first, but Creationism is one key area where he is completely wrong and could potentially create a major setback for American students and businesses. We can't let America fall behind foriegn countries in the departments of Science and Technology because of his superstitious beliefs.

belisama said...

love what you've written here! why did you stop???? come back!