Is religion a threat to rationality and science?

[Ronn! Blankenship]

At 09:15 AM Friday 4/25/2008, Charlie Bell wrote:

>On 25/04/2008, at 10:41 PM, Ronn! Blankenship wrote:
> > At 12:24 AM Friday 4/25/2008, Charlie Bell wrote:
> >
> >> You don't see that much of atheists rallying round
> >> the oppressed religious (except possibly when atheists and minority
> >> religious like wiccans or Muslims are trying to get equal treatment
> >> to
> >> the Xian majority), because there just aren't that many cases of the
> >> religious being oppressed - they've got such a huge majority.
> >
> >
> >
> > So how cum we seldom hear of atheists in Middle Eastern countries
> > where members of non-Muslim religions are the oppressed minority
> > protesting against the huge religious majority?  ;)
>
>Well, yeah. Point i was trying to make originally was that USA ain't
>the rest of the world...


So was I.  ;)

While I'm not necessarily defending what the teacher did (allowing 
for the fact that we have only the one news report to tell us what 
that was, and any of us who have ever done something which has been 
in the paper, or even written something which was published in the 
paper, knows from experience how different what you read in the paper 
or other news source can be from what actually happened), I was 
simply pointing out that with all its faults, the US remains a place 
where people of different religious beliefs or no religious belief 
can live side-by-side mostly in peace and even friendship and can 
have discussions like this about our differences mostly without 
worrying about being arrested and perhaps executed for having those 
beliefs or letting it be known that we have those beliefs.


FWIW I don't plan to go downtown this evening nor do I feel that this 
event is likely to accomplish much to solve the problems of the city 
and area where I live:

<http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2008/04/city_leaders_pastors_residents.html>

<quote>

City leaders, pastors, residents to gather for prayer

Posted by Birmingham News staff April 24, 2008 9:40 PM

Ministers, city leaders and residents are expected to gather at the 
Boutwell Auditorium at 6 p.m. Friday to pray for an end to violence 
in the city.

In his call for a day of prayer in sackcloth and ashes, Birmingham 
Mayor Larry Langford has said the city needs to humble itself.

The Rev. Steve Green of More Than Conquerors Church has helped 
organize the event and said it will have an impact on the city.

"The king of Ninevah called constituents to a time of prayer and 
fasting," Green said. "We believe things begin to dramatically change 
when the mayor, or leader, calls for prayer.

</quote>

And from 
<http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/120911137345020.xml&coll=2>:

<quote>

With Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford calling for citizens to wear 
sackcloth and ashes tonight at 6 in a prayer rally at Boutwell 
Auditorium, some supportive ministers say it's time for biblical repentance.
[...]
Green said the mayor has bought 2,000 burlap sacks to be handed out 
to people at the event.
[...]
In a city proclamation, Langford said that "like the king of 
Ninevah," he declared a "day of prayer in sackcloth and ashes."

</quote>

The ballyhoo sort of brings to mind this verse from the Sermon on the Mount:

"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou 
hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy 
Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."  (New 
Testament | Matthew 6:6).

IOW, IMO we don't need public stunts but rather we need people 
throughout the city (, county, state, nation, world . . . ) to 
individually decide to start living better, perhaps by deciding to 
follow the Second Great Commandment:

"And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
thyself."  (New Testament | Matthew 22:39)

or even just the latter portion of the Ten Commandments (those which 
prescribe how we should relate to our fellow man rather than how we 
should worship God):

"Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the 
land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his 
ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's."  (Old 
Testament | Exodus 20:12 - 17)

Of course, if everyone (both ordinary citizens and the leaders) 
followed those (whether they considered them "commandments from God" 
or just good advice for living), the newspaper would be significantly 
thinner . . .


. . . ronn!  :)