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patentdragonThe BBC's Big Questions show was particularly revealing this (Sunday) morning - it's a discussion programme currently occupying the old religious slot, and it always manages to slip in a purely religious question; this week "Is Atheism An Intolerant Belief?" The general opinion was "Yes", because atheists dare to challenge religious people about their beliefs, and isn't that cruel of them? If anyone was being intolerant, it was the Bible-bashers, whose first response to the question was the ancient nugget about Mao Tse Tung, Stalin and so on and so forth - they were atheists, and so that means atheists are all evil extremists, right?
Oh, sorry - I forgot that they're amoral monsters anyway, as moral values are exclusive to god-believers, and not the result of humans interacting with other humans, as most of us would think. So before religion, people were just randomly bashing each other over the head with clubs, then? I don't think so - human interaction led to relationships between individuals, between those who were related by birth, between those sharing a common location... and eventually between those who belived in the same supernatural entities.
Unfortunately for the "holier-than-thous", we've moved on from the "bad olde days", when everyone was expected, and some times even required to declare themselves as Christian, sometimes on pain of a VERY nasty death. That particular "faith" doesn't enjoy an unchallenged and unchallengeable position any more, and to suggest otherwise is the equivalent of "see no evil, hear no evil".
After this programme, I felt a lot closer to the atheist point of view. The rants of the "God Squad" just seem to be noise to blot out the truth that there isn't a "Creator's voice" calling out to them after all. And that's the kind of noise I've had more than enough of lately.
Oh, sorry - I forgot that they're amoral monsters anyway, as moral values are exclusive to god-believers, and not the result of humans interacting with other humans, as most of us would think. So before religion, people were just randomly bashing each other over the head with clubs, then? I don't think so - human interaction led to relationships between individuals, between those who were related by birth, between those sharing a common location... and eventually between those who belived in the same supernatural entities.
Unfortunately for the "holier-than-thous", we've moved on from the "bad olde days", when everyone was expected, and some times even required to declare themselves as Christian, sometimes on pain of a VERY nasty death. That particular "faith" doesn't enjoy an unchallenged and unchallengeable position any more, and to suggest otherwise is the equivalent of "see no evil, hear no evil".
After this programme, I felt a lot closer to the atheist point of view. The rants of the "God Squad" just seem to be noise to blot out the truth that there isn't a "Creator's voice" calling out to them after all. And that's the kind of noise I've had more than enough of lately.
