Religion Bashing Thread

[pyrofyr]

Religion, why would I bash a 'God' that does not exist.

I don't care if I offend those people because their ignorance is offensive to me. Knowing what we know today there is no logical reason to wholeheartedly believe in an omnipotent being other than for the sake of it, being brainwashed, or just being insane.

[firewizardjt]

Since someone brought up Marx and his oh-so-famous opiate quote, I'll quote the whole hog from his contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right. It's a really beautiful piece of literature, even in its translated form:



Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusions about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions. The criticism of religion is therefore in embryo the criticism of the vale of woe, the halo of which is religion.

Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man will wear the chain without any fantasy or consolation, but so that he will shake off the chain and cull the living flower.



The underlined sentence is rather poignant, and the very last sentence of the third paragraph is truly masterful. You can even subsitute 'kiss' for 'cull' if culling doesn't floats your boat.

In any case, religion is a belief, and like all belief, open to criticism, satire and ridicule. You may defend religion from criticism (i.e. bashing), but you may not request the detractors of religion to cease their criticism. Or are you afraid that reason will eviscerate religion, and extirpate it like the disease it is?



Edit: I invite anyone and everyone to PM me and the other 'infidels' with any 'logical' arguments for the existence of God. Perhaps you'll like to try your hand at the Cosmological Argument? Or the Teleological Argument? Or perhaps the puerile Ontological Argument? We'll be overjoyed at the chance to beat sense into you, one annihilated piece of apologetics at a time.

[penguinzrock]

lol @ both sides thinking the other side is full of asshats
therefore coming off as asshats

Religion and its discussion has always been full of pretentious idiots trying to prove a point.
firewizardjt is correct in that you can never stop each side from criticizing the other, but that doesn't make criticism any less stupid and arbitrary.
The extremes of both ends are bad, and until they both stop trying to force their opinion on the other, this argument will never end, and the same points will be continually brought up.

Although I've gotta say, religion's the dark horse in this race.

[rasudoken]

Religion

Then nevermind

Although I've gotta say, religion's the dark horse in this race.

I don't get it, why a dark horse?

[PhoenixRider]

Religion, why would I bash a 'God' that does not exist.

I don't care if I offend those people because their ignorance is offensive to me. Knowing what we know today there is no logical reason to wholeheartedly believe in an omnipotent being other than for the sake of it, being brainwashed, or just being insane.

Oh god there is so much hypocrisy in this post it hurts.

[emailbox]

Oh god there is so much hypocrisy in this post it hurts.

That's what this thread is for, see. It works. Even firewizardjt came back from the dead to post in it.

[Streetnewbie]

Religion is definitely not mine and not about me. But if we talk about some other things that people consider supernatural, for example, psychics, this gives me much more confidence. Since I first tried free psychic chat online with such specialists, I've become convinced that it is just another way to explore yourself and your life, changing it for the better.