[LINK] atheism
Karl Auer
kauer at biplane.com.au
Fri Mar 2 13:03:56 AEDT 2007
On Fri, 2007-03-02 at 12:24 +1100, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> >Dawkin's book made me realise that even that kind of religion is
> >dangerous because it provides a breeding ground and a disguise for
> >extremist forms of religion.
>
> Sounds like any religious based school when stated like this, not
> just the Islamic schools that the govt has problems with.
Yes, well...
Dawkins' point is that such schools - whether Christian, Islamic, Jewish
or anything else - actively deny rationality.
They tell children that it is OK to think, but not when it comes to the
really big questions. They make a virtue of ignorance and call it faith.
"I don't know" tells a child to keep looking, to keep trying to find
stuff out. Being handed a fairytale as if it were truth stops learning
in its tracks.
And these things, more than any bombs or hijacked aircraft, are a
perniciously damaging disease. They lead to important decisions being
made to suit faith instead of the facts; where facts are missing, faith
steps in as if it were a valid substitute.
Seen this way, the meekest of mild religions is still a Bad Thing, and
this is what Dawkins is trying to get across. I think he does so very
well.
Regards, K.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au) +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/ +61-428-957160 (mob)
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