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Science must ultimately destroy organized religion, according to some of the leading atheist writers and intellectuals who spoke at a recent atheist conference in Northern Virginia. God is a myth, and children must not be schooled in any faith, they said, at the "Crystal Clear Atheism" event, sponsored by the Atheist Alliance International.
Some of the luminaries who spoke at the conference, held at the Crown Royal Hotel in Crystal City, Va., over the weekend, included Oxford professor Richard Dawkins, author Sam Harris and journalist Christopher Hitchens. The Atheist Alliance International describes itself as "the only democratic national atheist organization in the United States."
While most attendees on Friday night were adamant that God was a myth, the convention, attended by hundreds of people, brought into focus a divide among atheists as to their identity as a movement and the nature of the enemy they faced.
In his speech, Dawkins portrayed a black-and-white intellectual battle between atheism and religion. He denounced the "preposterous nonsense of religious customs" and compared religion to racism. He also gave no quarter to moderate or liberal believers, asserting that "so-called moderate Christianity is simply an evasion."
"If you've been taught to believe it by moderates, what's to stop you from taking the next step and blowing yourself up?" he said.
By contrast, Harris's speech was a more tempered critique of the atheist movement itself. While Harris said he believed science must ultimately destroy religion, he also discussed spirituality and mysticism and called for a greater understanding of allegedly spiritual phenomena. He also cautioned the audience against lumping all religions together.
"The refrain that all religions have their extremists is bull-t," Harris said. "All religions do not have their extremists. Some religions have never had their extremists."
Specifically, he noted that radical Islam was far more threatening than any radical Christian sect, adding that Christians had a right to be outraged when the media treated the two religions similarly...
Dawkins was particularly critical of parents who raise their children as a "Catholic child" or "Protestant child." Children must not be labeled as subscribing to a particular religion, he said, and should be allowed to examine the evidence and determine their beliefs for themselves....
Atheists are still a small minority in America. A Newsweek poll earlier this year found that 91 percent of Americans believe in God. A more recent Pew Research Center poll found that atheists were among the most distrusted people in the nation, with 53 percent of Americans holding an unfavorable opinion of them.
But they are a proudly elitist and self-certain minority. When asked what the main difference between believers and atheists was, Dawkins had a quick answer: "Well, we're bright."
No word on whether or not tolerance was a subject of discussion although one of the speakers at the conference, Sale McGowan, believes "humility is the natural inheritance of atheism." I'm not sure one reconciles these "bright" atheists pronouncement that religion must be destroyed with the pronouncement that "humility is the natural inheritance of atheism." Anyone? Or is it all just an atheist aversion?
Also, is anyone out there in fear of moderate Christians taking the next step and blowing themselves up, or is Harris right in that "Christians had a right to be outraged when the media treated the two religions similarly?"
Oh... I do love reading these posts! But let's all stick to logic? Fact? Oh wait we can't discuss religion with logic and fact! Sorry everyone please continue.
What makes something logical? I'm supposed to believe it's logical that the oceans could rise up to 7 meters due to global warming, based on computer models, inconsistent studies and just plain bad science. That's not logical to me.
It has to be something other than intellect the separates us because Firm you might be smarter than me I don't know you certainly write better than I do but when I look at religion it seems simple I dismiss all faiths equally. It just doesn't seem logical to not do so, how can you dismiss one and not all when all have the same amount of evidence.
Here is something you might like to read to understand a little of my views, not in my words but this is what I believe.
The bible may say the god gives you the right to choose but the church doesn't and have proven many times that they will do what they have to in order to push their belief on as many people as possible.
I hate to talk about evolution again but I think part of the problem people have with evolution is that species are not hard things set in stone. As a species acquires new small traits over hundreds of thousands of years it becomes a new species. Just like mankind took wolfs (Canis lupus) and bred them to (Canis domesticus) and yes I can't observe that cause it takes to long but we have it documented with fossil records of the common dog.
Evolution may be (infact it probably is) true, but that does not stop christians believing in God. The Bible has stories about how mankind started but these are stories that have morals. And excuse me, but the christian church is not obliging people to 'join them', it is simply trying to spread the 'good news'. The Bible is the base of the christian religion, the christians follow it. You can believe what you want to believe, but you can't say untrue mean things about other religions!
Evolution may be (infact it probably is) true, but that does not stop christians believing in God. The Bible has stories about how mankind started but these are stories that have morals. And excuse me, but the christian church is not obliging people to 'join them', it is simply trying to spread the 'good news'. The Bible is the base of the christian religion, the christians follow it. You can believe what you want to believe, but you can't say untrue mean things about other religions!
I try to stay away from untrue things even though something that is untrue has never gotten in the way of christianity before why would it now. As for mean things that is exactly the point of this thread. Is that religion has done many mean things and people ignore it in the name of freedom of religion or because we are worried that some crazy religious person will bomb us for not believing.
Your right the missionaries give native people a choice they can become christian or die because the church only helps the ones that accept Jesus. Sounds like a good choice to me. Of course with better media coverage and things like that they don't do it as much but they still try to strip away the belief of the local culture and teach the children about Jesus. They just don't bother to change the adult religions any more.
Another thing about everyone who says that say god gives free will so you don't have to follow him but in the same breath tell you that if you don't you will burn forever. That would be one the same grounds as saying that you can kill as many people as you want to but were going to kill you afterwards. If you believe it to be true than he really isn't giving you choice now is he.
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