I saw the following anecdote that someone posted on the website, the friendly atheist. It just struck me as really funny:
“I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said “Stop! don’t do it!” “Why shouldn’t I?” he said. I said, “Well, there’s so much to live for!” He said, “Like what?” I said, “Well…are you religious or atheist?” He said, “Religious.” I said, “Me too! Are you christian or buddhist?” He said, “Christian.” I said, “Me too! Are you catholic or protestant?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me too! Are you episcopalian or baptist?” He said, “Baptist!” I said,“Wow! Me too! Are you baptist church of god or baptist church of the lord?” He said, “Baptist church of god!” I said, “Me too! Are you original baptist church of god, or are you reformed baptist church of god?” He said,“Reformed Baptist church of god!” I said, “Me too! Are you reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1879, or reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915?” He said, “Reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915!” I said, “Die, heretic scum”, and pushed him off.” – Emo Phillips
While it’s funny as an anecdote and it’s extreme, it points out a major problem with religions. They claim all sorts of warmth, charity, and acceptance, but most if it is within their own group. See how much acceptance one would get from an average christian church if one declared him/herself a moslem or worse yet, an atheist.
We also see how christians are sometimes treated in islamic countries. Oh, and I forgot about the wonderful relations between the jews and the palestinians in Isreal.
Occam
... See how much acceptance one would get from an average christian church if one declared him/herself a moslem or worse yet, an atheist... OccamYou know, in the US, atheists are much more distrusted than Muslims. And Muslims are pretty highly distrusted because of the really bad things attributed to a minority of Muslims. Do you think that one reason that atheists are so distrusted is due to the really bad things attributed to a minority of atheists? e.g., http://listverse.com/2010/06/05/10-people-who-give-atheism-a-bad-name/
No, I think the distrust comes from ministers’ sermons warning against any disbelief in god. I’ll bet that if you printed just the names of those ten people without their pictures, and asked a hundred people to identify all they could and to list their religious views, you’d get many of the people not being able to identify most of them, calling all the Asians buddhists, and most of the others some denomination other than their own. I’ll bet that “atheist” would be listed by very few people.
Occam
... See how much acceptance one would get from an average christian church if one declared him/herself a moslem or worse yet, an atheist... OccamYou know, in the US, atheists are much more distrusted than Muslims. And Muslims are pretty highly distrusted because of the really bad things attributed to a minority of Muslims. Do you think that one reason that atheists are so distrusted is due to the really bad things attributed to a minority of atheists? e.g., http://listverse.com/2010/06/05/10-people-who-give-atheism-a-bad-name/ No, I think that is secondary evidence. The primary fear is that they are incapable of figuring out their own morality, so if you have, that means either you are better than them, or you are lying. Philosophers have failed at this and human nature is not really designed to care for the human race on a planetary scale. We care about those close to us and everyone else is an abstraction. We want the tribe to be giving but we aren't sure how much we should give to it before we are just being taken advantage of. So, it's easier just not to think about it and have someone tell us what it means to be good. If being good means believing in something no one else can see, so that they can't verify our goodness, it's just written in our hearts, all the better.