How to view religions.

User avatar
Hermit
Posts: 25806
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:44 am
About me: Cantankerous grump
Location: Ignore lithpt
Contact:

Re: How to view religions.

Post by Hermit » Thu Dec 07, 2017 4:26 am

Forty Two wrote:Should it be with contempt? Should religions be ridiculed and mocked?

What are the arguments for and against that?
Care to give your own answers to those questions?

1) Yes. At least since the age of Enlightenment anyway.
2) Depends on what aspect of it is addressed. For instance, Genesis is just asking to be mocked. "Do unto others...", while not particularly original, is laudable.
3) For: i) Millions, or perhaps billions of believers feel better for the belief that there is life after death. ii) Fear of divine punishment probably stops some people some of the time from doing some things they know is just wrong. It's not the best of reasons to refrain from doing wrong, but it does reduce its incidence.
Against: Religious views on abortion, homosexuality, the whole issue of sex, contraception. Hindu and Buddhist fatalism. Sharia. Theocratic tendencies. ... I don't know where to even start.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould

Dworkin
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Sep 05, 2017 9:56 am
Contact:

Re: How to view religions.

Post by Dworkin » Sun Dec 10, 2017 7:46 am

Folks,

I'm not convinced that mockery and contempt are effective strategies against organised religion. As an example I would present Donald Trump's popularity with Evangelicals and Mormons.

So many times I have heard the Christian right say that the perceived mockery (and/or contempt) from liberals hardens their politics against them. 'Hate' would not be too strong a word.

D.

PS - Of course this may be bollocks. :prof:

User avatar
JimC
The sentimental bloke
Posts: 73015
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 7:58 am
About me: To be serious about gin requires years of dedicated research.
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

Re: How to view religions.

Post by JimC » Sun Dec 10, 2017 8:26 am

To me, amused contempt is not a "strategy"; I have no illusions of having much effect on the deluded.

It is simply my reaction to bullshit.
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!

User avatar
Hermit
Posts: 25806
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:44 am
About me: Cantankerous grump
Location: Ignore lithpt
Contact:

Re: How to view religions.

Post by Hermit » Sun Dec 10, 2017 8:34 am

Mockery and contempt may not be effective strategies. So what? Forty Two titled the thread "How to view religions."
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould

User avatar
JimC
The sentimental bloke
Posts: 73015
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 7:58 am
About me: To be serious about gin requires years of dedicated research.
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

Re: How to view religions.

Post by JimC » Sun Dec 10, 2017 8:42 am

Additionally, while I may view religions with amused contempt, that is not normally the case with how I view individual religious people, particularly those who don't attempt to proselytise.
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!

Dworkin
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Sep 05, 2017 9:56 am
Contact:

Re: How to view religions.

Post by Dworkin » Sun Dec 10, 2017 9:36 am

Dworkin wrote: PS - Of course this may be bollocks. :prof:
D.

User avatar
Brian Peacock
Tipping cows since 1946
Posts: 37953
Joined: Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:44 am
About me: Ablate me:
Location: Location: Location:
Contact:

Re: How to view religions.

Post by Brian Peacock » Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:48 pm

Dworkin wrote:Folks,

I'm not convinced that mockery and contempt are effective strategies against organised religion. As an example I would present Donald Trump's popularity with Evangelicals and Mormons.

So many times I have heard the Christian right say that the perceived mockery (and/or contempt) from liberals hardens their politics against them. 'Hate' would not be too strong a word.

D.

PS - Of course this may be bollocks. :prof:
It's a tricky one, because people who identify with this-or-that religion tend to be put out by criticism of same. I criticise Christianity for example, for, at a very basic and fundamental level, seeking to make moral automatons of its adherents, but I know individual Christians make perfectly reasonable moral judgements aside from their religion, not necessarily because of it. I criticise an aspect of their faith tradition, but not necessarily how they live their lives or who they are.
Rationalia relies on voluntary donations. There is no obligation of course, but if you value this place and want to see it continue please consider making a small donation towards the forum's running costs.
Details on how to do that can be found here.

.

"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

Frank Zappa

"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
.

User avatar
Alan B
Posts: 976
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:53 pm
Location: Birmingham, UK.
Contact:

Re: How to view religions.

Post by Alan B » Sun Dec 10, 2017 4:10 pm

With suspicion.
The followers are the controlled and the priestly hierarchy are the controllers.
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power - Eric Hoffer.
I have NO BELIEF in the existence of a God or gods. I do not have to offer proof nor do I have to determine absence of proof because I do not ASSERT that a God does or does not or gods do or do not exist.

User avatar
rainbow
Posts: 13528
Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2012 8:10 am
About me: Egal wie dicht du bist, Goethe war Dichter
Location: Africa
Contact:

Re: How to view religions.

Post by rainbow » Mon Dec 11, 2017 6:53 am

Alan B wrote:With suspicion.
The followers are the controlled and the priestly hierarchy are the controllers.
Obviously.

What I said already.
I call bullshit - Alfred E Einstein
BArF−4

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests