[lbo-talk] attitudes towards religion

ravi ravi at platosbeard.org
Thu Sep 27 20:06:32 PDT 2007


On 27 Sep, 2007, at 15:33 PM, Bryan Atinsky wrote:
> ravi wrote:
>> On 27 Sep, 2007, at 14:42 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>>
>>> Ok, Americans don't think too highly of Moslems or Mormons. But they
>>> think even less highly of atheists!
>>
>> Me too. (and I am an atheist!!!)
>
> Why Ravi?
>

Because I think atheism at this point is far from any roots in humanism and is represented by a bunch of sneering geeks like Hitchens and Dawkins. Russell wrote:

Dogma demands authority, rather than intelligent thought, as the source

of opinion; it requires persecution of heretics and hostility to

unbelievers; it asks of its disciples that they should inhibit natural

kindness in favor of systematic hatred.

A good part of modern atheists could easily qualify for the above being applied in reverse, notwithstanding their disingenuous references to the atrocities of the [leaders of the] faithful.

Russell also wrote:

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life:

the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for

the suffering of mankind.

Russell was a mathematician who nonetheless felt no need for a calculus to substitute (in the quote above) for "natural kindness". Today, I am afraid, atheism is a product of an arithmetic style that would be (in its rhetoric) difficult to differentiate from the [non- religious-fanatic] right in identifying such emotions ("unbearable pity") derisively as "bleeding heart", etc.

--ravi



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