"I only ask because I find value in the debate, and they might also."
Very devout religious people invest an overwhelming meaning in their belief system. It is unusual for such to wish to "debate" as the process is properly understood. You do not debate what you "know" to be true and what you "need" to be true. I have nothing to gain from such a "debate". And I have much to lose.
To properly agitate such deeply internalized beliefs would require that I point out facts that I know will wound all parties involved as well as the relationship.
I would never be friends with "believers" of any religions who were not at the same time innocent people. Fanatics are another stripe altogether; and much of the purpose of this website has to do with allowing agnostics and atheists to be proud of their rationality and to have the tools and the will to fight socially against "believers" who are NOT innocent, but who are rather control freaks with a dangerous leaning to judgment and demonization. After all...the entire purpose of religion is to separate the evil from the good, and those deserving of reward from those deserving of damnation and eternal torture. Each major religion (if it had the necessary political power) would IMPOSE their requisite values upon the populace.
So the purpose of this site is three-fold: to encourage the rational people of this world to discard mindless crap where it appears in any religion; to rationally confute the spurious "certainties" that are put forward in mindless quotes from mindless sources; and to encourage the separation of Church and State till the end of time while defending without surcease the rights of all people to believe as they choose...and to debate and argue and defend those beliefs if they so choose.
Nobody is forced to come here or to argue here. I respect that any who choose to debate here are mature enough to know that they risk having thoughts of their own--as well as facing the rather frightening reality that the attempt to reason and to think with such consummate integrity may result in overwhelming cognitive dissonance. I have found very few "believers" to this site who were capable of any "debate" beyond the mindless assertion that their words and quotes were true because the bible was true--yada, yada. Therefore, all other bibles, beliefs, etc. are false...and believers in such are punishable by eternal torture and damnation. And other such blather.
It is all rather silly, but there is nothing silly about the potential for human misery and suffering where we forget eternal vigilance against the mystics of the world. It is not a battle between spirituality and science. It is a battle between superstition and reason. If reason wins we have a society of peace, freedom, and human rights. If superstition wins we have whatever society can be imagined by such people. And we see many such around our lonely planet as we write this. As I write these sentences, primitive and inhuman creatures are murdering with the intensity and the self-glory that only the most ignorant, superstitious, and deranged can experience. |
