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Politics : View from the Center and Left

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To: JohnM who wrote (287794)	1/9/2016 1:52:26 PM
From: koan	Read Replies (1) of 542169

I am truly sorry that post upset you John. And I hesitated because I expected this response from you. I like you and respect you a lot and I have no desire to upset you. The cautious optimist brought up a valid question. And then I noticed another person acting like it was a crazy question. At that point, I decided to address it and did it as gently as I possibly could. Religion has had a powerful positive and negative affect in this country and throughout history for that matter. To say it is a subject that shouldn't be discussed is what is over the top. Why is it over the top to discuss negative things in our society that need to be resolved? Or do you think there are no negative things pertaining to religion that need to be resolved? I am willing to concede all the positive things of religion, but I don't think you can let all the negative things just sit and fester. As we have done, more or less, for the last 2000 years. When I read the Axemaker's Gift by James Burke and Robert Ornstein about the history of science over mankind's evolution, one of the central subjects all through the book was how religion punished and tortured people who were heretics. What religion did over the last 2000 years to heretics was horrible and pervasive. If one reads that book it is clear there is no way to write a history of science without addressing that subject constantly. I know when I started writing a similar book I spent months trying to think how do I write this without offending the religious community. I finally gave up. And then when I read the Axemaker's Gift I realized that it was an impossible task, because religion for 2000 years has had a death grip on society and was the primary force holding back intellectual and scientific advancement necessary for civilization. There is not a subject you can bring up that makes me emotionally upset to the point it clouds my thinking. But with religious folks, they do not allow anyone to discuss the negative issues of religion on society in their presence, just as you are doing now, and so the problems stay unresolved. So when do we discuss the pervasive damage religion has done to people in this country and for that matter all through history? The whole reason these problems persist is because the religious community has intimidated everyone to prevent them from being brought up. Look how we shoved the pervasive pedophilia by Catholic priests under the carpet for so long. Maybe the people who get upset about discussing those subjects should think about the torture those young boys went through? I understand the equation well and that was the point of my post. Any time someone tries to get at the negative aspects of religion on our society, people who have a strong emotional attachment to religion get upset and shut it down. And as a consequence those problems do not get rectified.

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