So can we trash religion on DU, NOW???

[NNadir]

52. I do not participate in religions beyond social obligations...

...but I have known religious people who are not right wing fundamentalists.

I have never felt constrained on DU about criticizing the intrusion of religion into basic human rights, as is certainly the case with this horrible attack on women, but that said, I would hesitate to attack people of faith in a blanket sense.

Those of us who are nonbelievers may think and do think that religion is absurd - Tertullian famously remarked that absurdity was the source of his belief - but we serve humanity better if we focus on the value or perniciousness of religious principals on a case by case basis.

Elaine Pagels brilliantly suggested that the belief in human equality which has spread widely around the world, regrettably not everywhere, derived from historical Christianity. I am not a Christian and have dismissed countless appeals to become one, within and without my family, but I agree with Dr. Pagels that even our Declaration of Independence originates in that Christian principle, the principle that all human beings have intrinsic value. She noted that many philosophers would have found such a conception ridiculous, citing, as I recall, Aristotle.

I think criticizing particular religious principles are fair game, but even as I have no religion, I see no purpose in a blanket condemnation.