[extropy-chat] Atheists launch inquisition...

[Fred C. Moulton]

On Fri, 2004-11-26 at 09:57, Mike Lorrey wrote:
> On the contrary, I don't think it is germaine. Even if the teacher were
> specifically teaching these exerpts as part of a module regarding the
> religious basis for the colonizing of the US, it was entirely within
> her responsibility to teach that REAL history.

But it is how the excerpts are used that is the the question.  Using
excerpts to provide an accurate and full view of history is one thing,
to use excerpts to provide a distorted view of history is another.  We
do not have sufficient evidence before us to know which I suggest we
avoid jumping to unfounded conclusions.
 
> This absurd and revisionist view of history is exactly what is wrong
> and what I am talking about. Whatever you think about religion of any
> kind, it is entirely wrong to rewrite history in order to write
> religion out of it.

As I said above we do not know the details of the case so we can not
come to a conclusion about the Cupertino situation.  As for the
participants in this discussion I do not recall anyone attempting to
rewrite history.  If you think someone has then please quote the
specific passage from their message.

> It is classic atheist agit-prop to write out of history all the good
> things done in the name of religion, while emphasizing all the bad
> things. This illustrates the inherent irrationality of many/most
> atheists.

Given the number of Atheists who post messages here I am curious how you
divide them up.  How many have inherent irrationality?  A few, some,
most, all?  And what about some famous Atheists such as Richard Dawkins
for example.  Provide the names of the ones you think suffer from
inherent irrationality.

Further I know many Atheists and am a member of many Atheist groups and
I do not know any major Atheist group that wants to "write out of
history all the good things done in the name of religion".  Since you
refer to "classic atheist agit-prop" provide specific references to page
numbers in books or journals to back up your claim.  I would not be
surprised if you can find one or two somewhere since there is always an
uninformed individual or two in most historical movements but I doubt
you find credible evidence of any major atheist campaign to rewrite
history.  You made a claim now provide some specific evidence, vague
accusations do not cut it.

Fred