Turing wrote:Blaming people who take the ideas of religion, warp and twist it into stupid pseudoscience like Intelligent Design, and then attempt to push that onto the populace is very similar to people who take the ideas of religion, warp and twist them into stupid pseudoscience like Eugenics, and then attempt to push that on the populace. Yes. Read both sentences aloud if you like.
Except that the holy text of the former explicitly encourages such (after all, their goal is nothing more than a well-organized mission trip, only it's targeting our government institutions that strictly forbid it, as opposed to poor, 3rd world peoples whose souls obviously need to be saved), while the doctrines of the latter do not. I think that's an important distinction.
And no, I don't think that's the case at all. I absolutely think that it is important to have more of a dialog about what religion is, what religion isn't, and how to fix those religious people who act in a tyrranical and retarded manner about their religion. I just don't think that "Nanny nanny poo poo, we're atheists so we're smarter" is opening up a dialog.
There is no mechanism in organized religion (at least the major ones here) that allows for this. The best way I can imagine to "fix" those people, is by not placing value on beliefs that have no basis in reality.
When our society grants unconditional and automatic respect to anyone's religious beliefs, no matter what they are, then it paves the way for people who think that Katrina was caused by a gay pride parade in New Orleans to be given airtime on national television, and to be accorded the same respect as professional meteorologists.
And I have been there a few times and will be moving down there next year, so I'm at least passingly familiar. And yes, plenty of people there Do It Wrong. That's nothing to condemn all of religion for, though.
I'm certainly not condemning all religion - not for their sake or anyone else's. But the tone of your posts gave me the impression that you think the crazy fanatics are a tiny minority of religious people, simply because sane and rational religious people don't seek out media attention that allows them to hurl their sermons at anyone within broadcast range. This may be partially true, but in large part it is a function of your environment. I see the most divisive, hate-filled rhetoric on windshield-sized transparencies on my way to work every week. These people are not being ridiculed by their own churches for being lunatic hate-mongers - they are being slapped on the back by everyone else who is in The Club.
Practically speaking, how do you think this kind of behavior can be "fixed," without pointing out the fallacies that its justifications rest upon?