re: #28 Ming

I really like the book “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins. In it, Dawkins makes a passionate plea for organized religion to leave children alone. Of course, the four religions that I have some knowledge of, Scientology Judaism Christianity and Islam, aren’t the least bit shy to involve children young and early. Obviously, members of these religions would be appalled at Dawkins’ pleas to leave the kids alone.

I’m responding to your comment in this way because from my point of view, I don’t think any one of these religions is more “sinister” than any other, in terms of what they do to kids. Some religions do this more artfully than others. But it seems to me that the GOAL is precisely the same.

(Since I’ve left so many recent extreme atheist comments here, let me say that some of the people I care most about are religious, and also that Richard Dawkins is my favorite of the “new atheists”; he somehow manages to be incredibly courteous to other points of view, even when taking admittedly “non-mainstream” positions such as mine above. I may have missed something, but I’m not aware of any nasty sound-bites he’s made.)

I’m not so much of a Dawkins fan. I liked Hitchens but he was often a douche when the topic of religion came up. I’m an atheist but I like religion. There are all sorts of people who believe all sorts of nutty stuff, sometimes it’s extreme and dangerous but I think religion is a source of beauty, music, art and culture. A world without religion would be duller.