The comparison of Atheists to “non-skiers” is flawed, in that non-skiers don’t ski, but they don’t necessarily “disbelieve” in skiing, or in the existence of the act of skiing, whether they themselves ski or not.
The attitude of the Crusading Atheist, as observed by Albert Einstein, Neil DeGrasse Tyson and others, is I believe this…
A Crusading Atheist who goes out of his/her way to “inform” believers how “deluded” they are is EXACTLY the same as a Crusading *Insert Name Of Faith Here* who goes out of his/her way to “inform” unbelievers how “doomed” they are. Basically, they become what they are screaming so strongly against.
Or, look at it this way…let’s say, in your mind, you KNOW the Easter Bunny doesn’t exist. I’m not comparing religion to fairy tales, but Crusading Atheists do, and so I’m just using their own “logic”.
So, you “know” that the Easter Bunny doesn’t exist. The role of the Crusading Anti-Easter-Bunny-Theist is to inform all small children all over the world that, while believing in the Easter Bunny may give them comfort and joy, it is their DUTY to inform them how deluded they are, on mere PRINCIPLE. “You, little girl…how can you believe in it when you’ve never seen it??!! They’re just fooling you! WAKE UP!!!!” *Little girl cries* “Ahhh…my work here is done.”
Nice people, huh?
As to the notion that religion is harmful and the Easter Bunny is not, and therefore on that basis alone religion should be done away with, the LOGICAL facts do not support this. And, since Fervent Atheism is supposedly based on “logic”, it is self-contradictory. To say that removing religion from the world would remove much conflict from the world is true. It is also true that if we removed politics from the world, conflict would be removed. It is also true that if everyone was the same race, we would remove conflict from the world. It is also true that if everyone was genetically engineered at birth to “love” who they are and what they do, no matter how horrible their life is, we would remove conflict from the world. And that if we all took “happy pills”, we would remove conflict from the world. And if we therefore modeled our society on Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’, the world would be a peaceful, gentle, harmonious place. By the same token, if we all loved “Big Brother” and stopped thinking for ourselves altogether as in Orwell’s ‘1984’, the world would be a peaceful, gentle, harmonious, tranquil place.
“Mission Accomplished…What’s Next?” … “Hurting the ones you know and love? Chasing rabbits on a minibike until their hearts explode?”
We would also cease to exist as legitimate life forms and would be nothing more than organic robots.
People do fcked up sh1t because they’re scumbags, where applicable. Religion is just one excuse…JUST ONE EXCUSE…there are millions of others! (Guess the sketch and win a prize).
We can’t get rid of them all unless we want to become identical mindless drones.
Me, I’ll take the inherent conflicts that come with freedom of religion, thought, and expression.
-Puppy >.< Yip!
5/10/16: Assuming the (impossibly) complete success of Antitheism, the end result moved towards (in one way of many ways possible, see above) as described by a logical Theist (My Lack-Of-God I LOVE using this quote…): “This is a soulless society, Captain. It has no spirit, no spark. All is indeed peace and tranquility: the peace of the factory, the tranquility of the machine. All parts working in unison.” – Spock
5/10/16: CLARIFICATION FOR CA/A’S: Spock is using the words “soul” and “spirit” in the metaphorical sense, not the strictly and pedantically literal, “religious” sense…something made clear by the rest of his statement. And if you think all words must be used always and only according to their strict literal meanings, you have some serious vocabulary editing to do. Words are used to convey feelings, beliefs, impressions, etc…therefore, an imperfect word that captures the feeling and belief well is MORE appropriate than a perfect word that does not.
If you don’t agree with that…well, stop reading 95 percent of the books ever written. And for the love of God/lack-of-God, stop watching “comedy”…I mean, a lot of that is BASED ON improper use of words. We are not amused.
5/10/16: “Pedantic” is my current word-du-jour. Of course, I probably didn’t really NEED to say that…