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Delicate ears

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

It seems agreed, is not it? After this issue , and this , and this response to them (to which I answered in the blog in question), the always delicious Jesus and Mo clearly demonstrates the current absurd situation ...

Jesus and Mo - "Ears"

... Where any criticism of religious belief is a "shrill," "militant," "intolerant" and "personally offensive", which does not happen to any other matter.

Religion in general, each religion individually, and each particular religious belief, they are just ideas, and there is no valid reason for being in a privileged position above criticism, even believers have no reason to equate criticism of their beliefs personal attacks ... or right to do so. It is time to remove the religious beliefs of "Mom's lap" where they continue to be unfairly privileged and protected, and bring them to the real world, the "world of grown-up", where all the other ideas already live a long time.

PS - not to say that "I put everything in one basket," if you are Christian but do not consider that to criticize religious beliefs (both your and others) is "blasphemy" or think that such beliefs should be privileged above criticism, 1) Obviously, this post is not to criticize you for you, and 2) congratulations, too bad most believers do not be like you in this regard. :)

Response to two critical

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

I received yesterday and today, two criticisms of this blog via Twitter, which I answered, needing a 7 tweets. But I want to answer them here as well, with a little more space compared to Twitter, and so that the answers are available on the blog, since it is possible that the criticism in question make sense for other visitors in the future.

The first is this: that the site name is incorrect, because atheism is merely the absence of belief in a god or gods, and what I do here is "anti-religious activism."

For that, yes, it is true that the strict definition of atheism is that, but it is also valid to see something in a more lactate. For me and for many , atheism is associated with skepticism, humanism and rationality, and the site is dedicated to (among other things) to promote these concepts. "Www.ateismo-humanism, skepticism-and-rational-pt.com" would be too long :) , And the idea of the name of a site is not to be descriptive, it's just a title, a "brand", a designation.

The second criticism is that "something is to criticize the acts done in the name of a religion, or through it, but put everything into the same bag is wrong."

I think here the author of the review is to confuse a) my criticism of acts and institutions, where only the authors clearly critical of the acts and / or members of the institutions in question, 2) logical argument against religious beliefs themselves, irrationality, " wishful thinking ", etc.. in that, yes, I am criticizing the beliefs of many people who never hurt anyone about them, but to criticize beliefs - a very" intimate "as they are - is not an attack! It is not even a conviction. It is a simple "you're wrong because ...", as for any other subject would be accepted (by agreeing or disagreeing) with no problems.

When I argue against the "logic" of certain beliefs or religious arguments (eg, "God must exist, otherwise how does the universe exist", or Pascal's Wager, or mention the fact that the belief of 99% believers to be just the product of an accident of geography, or criticize the lack of skepticism and rationality of someone), I am not "attacking" or condemn anyone, I'm just criticizing ideas that I consider wrong, justifying my criticism with facts and logic (which may well be wrong, it is noted). Just as I am happy to tell me I'm wrong in anything.

What is not accepted is that religious beliefs to themselves require a special position, untouchable, beyond reproach, or that these beliefs become inseparable from the believers themselves, so that any criticism of a belief or idea is viewed as a personal attack on all believers. This not only makes no sense, as it is cowardly - is somehow an admission that religious beliefs and ideas are not able to "come out fighting," to demonstrate logically consistent, to compete in the marketplace of ideas, and which therefore need special protection, almost criminalizing (in Muslim theocracies to take the "almost") the mere act of the question or criticize.

And for the believers to be ready to personally offended by a simple criticism of their beliefs and ideas: they're really confident in respect of them, would not react well. Rather, they were ready to "go it" ideas, confident in having the facts and logic on your side, no need to require protection or "respect" special for your beliefs simply because they are religious beliefs. And this should make you think a little ...

"Atheists are so fanatical and militant believers as they criticize!"

Monday, May 10, 2010

Today I came to hear (well read) this, a tweet from someone whose opinions I generally respect to (after all, follow him on Twitter) ... and despite being incredibly common, I can not help but be surprised that someone is able to say - or think - that.

What atheists who criticize religion are generally divided into two aspects: 1) the critical acts by religious institutions or in the name of religion (eg spread of AIDS in Africa because of opposition to condoms, masking institutionalized pedophilia 1 , oppression of women in Muslim countries, religious terrorism, anti-intellectualism and opposition to science, etc..), and 2) criticism of religious beliefs and religious thought proper, in the promotion of rationality and scientific thought, in making the world better, as opposed to a humanity trapped in that supernatural beliefs are never going to "wishful thinking". All these acts are reduced to critical - critical of acts, critical of people, ideas and criticism. This is what is "fanatical miltante"?

The idea of people making these statements seems to be this: the critic is a reprehensible act "as bad" as the author of that act, merely because the act of criticism.

Those who criticize a corrupt politician as he is as reprehensible. Who requires justice for a rapist or pedophile is as criminal as if he had raped or abused children. Who to call the police to report a theft is as guilty as the thief. Who rebels with racism is as reprehensible as the greatest racist.

Does that make sense? Of course not. It is completely absurd for the examples above, and it is for any other example I can think of.

Except religion.

Has long since we see it, and many have said in the past: it is historically unusual criticism that somehow religion - and in the case of countries like Portugal, the Catholic Church - and even until very recently time was so unusual that someone did, that the slightest whisper sounds like a scream. And it sounds that way even to those who is not himself a believer.

Nothing else explains why, regardless of the abuses and atrocities made ​​up by religious organizations, or made ​​in the name of religion, the very criticism in opposition to them is absurdly equated to these abuses and atrocities.

Who says things like the post title, my suggestion is: think a bit on this issue. Why is religion - Christian or not you be - must be on a special pedestal, above criticism? And if you think it should be, why act like it should?

  1. notice that I do not blame the pedophilia itself: there is only the fault of the individual concerned, and not have to be religious to be a pedophile. But the crime of concealment and breach of other children in the future thanks to this cover-up - in the name of "reputation of the universal church" - is 100% guilty to the Catholic Church hierarchy and the same. [ ]

Atheists: the most hated minority in the U.S.

Friday, February 26, 2010

The Atheist - Godless Atheists Threaten Christian civilization Who lives in countries mainly composed of believers "not practicing" as is the case of Portugal, probably does not make any idea what happens in a certain country, it is not Iran, Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan, but the United States of America. A supposedly secular nation, which, unlike most European countries (all?), Religion is not even official, state ... and yet, religion - mostly Protestant Christians, but there is everything - is the highest among countries of "1st world", and survey after survey continues to show that atheists - about 10% of the country - are the most hated minority, the more considered "anti-American" and no longer considered reliable. A candidate (admittedly) atheist to hold any political office is virtually ineligible, and atheists are discriminated against at school, at work and in their own neighborhoods - sometimes reaching vandalism and physical violence.

But do not go by what I say (after all, never been there, although read daily blogs and news from there), so will Mike Clawson ( blog ), a Christian (liberal, those who do not say that God hates gays and that all non-Christians will be tortured eternally after death, but Christian in it), wrote a thesis (link to Google Docs) that made ​​for his seminar on the status of atheists in America. They are about 20 pages but the text is in bold relatively large and well spaced, so it is easily read in less than 5 minutes.

Seriously, it's worth.

Then think if you will, a little about the legitimacy to discriminate, ostracize, demonize, insult and abuse constantly - sometimes up to violence - a significant proportion of people simply do not have the same beliefs as them. And also think about what this says about the "higher" Christian morality.

The fact that he was a Christian to write it, and have done so after talking with atheists blog Friendly Atheist (typically, this is not - as he says in the text, believers say - even on TV - unpunished atrocities on atheists without having even one of those present to respond), it is nevertheless a refreshing relief: Christians can overcome their prejudices - and much of the "morality" of the Bible, too. It is a principle ...

(Via: Friendly Atheist )


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This work by Dehumanizer is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Portugal .