On 31 Aug 2005, at 8:27 pm, Warren Ockrassa wrote:
On Aug 31, 2005, at 2:48 AM, William T Goodall wrote:
It would drive it underground. The number of people infected would
be reduced and its influence in public affairs mostly silenced.
Whether it would then wither away naturally or have to be rooted
out is hard to judge.
I think we can take a lesson from history here in the form of the
US "war on drugs", which has been an expensive and miserable
failure. Any student of human nature would have predicted that.
If you're of the mindset that religiosity is addictive, that its
effects on the human animal are analogous to drugs, I think the
conclusion is inescapable. Banning religion won't help a single iota.
Smoking is getting banned in more and more places and people are
going along with that. A generation ago the majority smoked. Now the
majority (in the USA) are religious. I hope that goes the way of
smoking.
Only open, reasoned discussion can counteract a meme that is
parasitic and potentially lethal. You must be aware of that. This
means that nonbelievers have to be more straightforward about
putting forth their nonreligious perspectives; but it does NOT mean
we need to be aggressive, threatening, belligerent or insulting of
others' lives or intelligence.
The very best you're likely to see, ever, is an uneasy compromise
between doubt and faith. It would be more productive for you from a
personal perspective to deal with that, I think, and approach the
question from that assumption rather than the dogmatic one you've
adopted.
The best I hope to see is the end of religion. I won't get that by
being all soft and wishy-washy on evil nonsense.
--
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
"The three chief virtues of a programmer are: Laziness, Impatience
and Hubris" - Larry Wall
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