Religion & Ethics: Content from Across the ABC




Date/Time 14 Jul 2014 8:25:52am
Not all atheists are Dawkins clones and most can accept that religion does has some 'good' aspects'

It can provide comfort to those that aren't strong enough in moments of trial. It provided a framework for social behavior when there were no laws or provisions to enforce them. It adds cohesion to societies.

However, each of these 'benefits' carries its own antithesis:

Trusting in a higher being to resolve a problem can immobilize and cause people to not act in their own good. (Turn the other cheek? Walk into a lion's den?) That same framework of social behavior causes people to follow unnecessary behaviors. (Can't eat meat on Friday? No pork? Can't use contraception?). And that 'cohesion' has an ugly side as evidenced by recent actions of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, strict Islamists in Mali, and of course the widely accepted anti-Muslim ramblings of our own Pastor Terry Thomas, Pat Robertson and Christians that blindly think Muslims are all terrorists.

Religion clearly has innate flaws. As to whether the good outweighs the flaws, that's a toss-up. A lot has to do with if you're living a cloistered existence say in a 'Leave It To Beaver' Protestant community, or having a Taliban put a bullet in your 14 year old skull because you thing girls should be entitled to education as well as boys.

Just a final point, look who's calling atheists irrational....the guy that believes in an invisible being. (Sorry...couldn't help myself.) ;=)