[ExI] atheism

[Dave Sill]

2009/12/18 Post Futurist <p0stfuturist at yahoo.com>
>
> Alrighty, but is faith/religion any sillier than celebrity culture, sports, politics, gossip?

OK, so minimizing silliness is your goal, and you think religion is
less silly than other pastimes?

>  Who wrote anything about a net good for 'society'?

I did, but I was trying to paraphrase you, so I phrased it as a
question so you could confirm or deny that it was accurate. I'm not
trying to trick you, just trying to understand you.

> who here has written that religion is good?

I thought you said it was more desirable than alternatives like sex,
overeating, and boozing. To me that's roughly synonymous to "better"
and not that far from "good".

> It's merely marginally less unappetizing IMO than bad politics, bad porn, bad gossip, etc.

Above you were talking about silliness. Now it's "appetizingness".
You may personally find porn uninteresting, "bad", or maybe just a
bigger waste of time/effort/resources than religion, but that's just
your opinion. Not everyone agrees with that. I'd rather see children
watching videos that treat sex as a natural, fun activity in which
normal people engage without shame than some "good", "wholesome"
religious propaganda that depicts it as deviant behaviour unless it's
being done, reluctantly, solely for the purpose of reproduction.

> I don't see anything as 'good', just less pernicious.

OK, so now the target is perniciousness?

> Busybodies are everywhere, you don't need to go to a house of worship to find them.

Wait, now the target is privacy? I can't keep up with you...

> Right now, in your office or lab, are religious people pushing you in any way?

New target detected: pushiness.

Look, I think religion is worse than overeating, watching sports on
TV, celebrity worship, gossip, politics, ..., all the bugaboos you've
listed added together. You're not going to convince me otherwise, nor
am I going to convince you that I'm right.

> or is it the govt? Does a religious org pressure you to pay taxes by April 15th?
> Are religious charities anywhere near as inefficient as govt?

Yeah, there are lots of things I'd abolish if I were the king.
Religion would be first and big government would be second.

-Dave