Religion
In reply to the discussion: The Problem with Religious Moderates [View all]trotsky
(49,533 posts)Clearly, you're quite anxious to put your god well outside the realm of analysis for this discussion. Perhaps your personal prejudices are at work here, too.
A couple hundred million people or so in this country DO believe in a god that has opinions and moral edicts that we should follow. It's great that your belief is so refined and advanced that you personally don't. I'm happy for you. But recognize that you are in a teeny tiny religious minority in that belief. Commenting that your god doesn't fit into this is irrelevant.
>There are many people who say we need assistance programs for the poor because their god wants it. Are they fanatics?
I dont know, I guess it would depend upon the means they use to accomplish their goal.
Prior to that statement, you had made a very general claim, that those who say we should do something because god wants it are fanatics. Now you say you don't know. Are you retracting the claim, then? Please explain.
My examples of blue laws and the Bush ban are specific real-world cases where policy that affects us all was determined because someone thought that's what god wanted. They have nothing to do with eugenics or any other red herring nonsense you're trying to bring in to muddy the issue. So unless you have some specific commentary to counter what I've said with an actual defense of these actions, it appears you've conceded the point.
The comparison to the RCC was made because you're the one who brought the size claim up. Evolution is not used to support eugenics or social darwinism. "Except for some individuals," you said. Great. How about the billion-member RCC that to this day is trying to use their religious beliefs to either fight against social progress (opposing gay marriage, for instance) or taking away rights of non-Catholics (working to outlaw abortion).
A few nuts who support eugenics (many of who are also religious, BTW) is hardly a comparison to what the RCC does, and yet you're trying to make that false equivalence. The RCC isn't just a "few extreme elements," it's a global organization with tremendous political power to this day.