We’re in the 21st century, and the vast majority of us still believe in an utterly and obviously fictional creator deity. Plenty of people, even in developed countries with decent educational systems, still believe in ghosts or magic (e.g. voodoo). And I–an atheist and a skeptic–am told I need to respect these patently false beliefs as cultural traditions.
Fuck that. They’re bad cultural traditions, undeserving of respect. Child-proofing society for these intellectually stunted people doesn’t help them; it is in fact a disservice to them to pretend it’s okay to go through life believing these things. We should demand that people contend with reality on a factual basis by the time they reach adulthood (even earlier, if I’m being completely honest). We shouldn’t be coddling people who profess beliefs that are demonstrably false, simply because their feelings might get hurt.
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Just because religion has been used to justify bad things doesn’t mean all religion is bad, or even that all bad things are excused by religion. The reasons people do bad things are legion.
Also, just because they use that excuse doesn’t mean it’s the actual reason.
Name one good thing that people could not have done without religion?
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That’s a somewhat backwards question. What good has religion motivated people to do that they would not have otherwise done?