[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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