Christopher Hitchens... contends instead that it is precisely religion that affords tyrants the chance to weave their spell over a populace primed for the purpose by a tradition of irrational belief:Simple credulity can be evil for this reason: Someone who can see there are millions of credulous people around will soon take advantage of the fact. ...
No longer is the concern at hand about the potency of either worldview to inspire violence or injustice, but rather its provision of dupes for unscrupulous tyrants.
[T]he superstition that the budget must be balanced at all times, once it is debunked, takes away one of the bulwarks that every society must have against expenditure out of control. . . . [O]ne of the functions of old-fashioned religion was to scare people by sometimes what might be regarded as myths into behaving in a way that long-run civilized life requires.
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Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Religion and Atheism
I've discovered a new blog via Planet Atheism with some terrific content: Religion and Atheism. There's a ton of videos, including Dawkins and Hitchens, plus a terrific analysis of Stalin and Mao: Is Atheism Evil:
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