The Atheist Blogger

I attended a lecture a few months back (before I started this blog) entitled “Enemy in the Mirror: Richard Dawkins, the New Atheists and their Crusade against Fundamentalism”. It was nothing special, and the “lecturer” didn’t actually talk about anything to do with the subject. She just went on a random rant about how everyone should respect the church etc.

However, after the lecture there were a lot of questions asked from the audience, a large majority of whom were openly atheist. One such question was from a theist (towards the atheists) who complained that we argue all the time about religion and yet send our children to catholic schools and CofE schools with no problems. The parents in the audience said they do this because the results from those schools are better than those at non-religious schools, and they wanted the best for their kids.

I’ve got no problem with people doing that, they want their kids to do well. However I personally do not trust education systems that rely on religion to get students. The only reason that these students are getting better marks is because of the high levels of discipline those schools have, and the only thing large amounts of discipline does is inhibit creativity. You are taught what to think and how to think, and completely ignore the principles that freethinking was founded on.

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The Vatican seems to be getting a lot of press lately. If you haven’t heard, they are using the money you donate to train exorcists. Welcome back to the dark ages.

From the article:

Under plans being considered, each bishop would have a group of priests in his diocese who were specially trained in exorcism and on hand to take action against “extreme Godlessness”.

How much training do you need to be an exorcist? You need “holy” water and a bible. Be gone evil spirit, be gone!

The Vatican is concerned that young people are being exposed to Satanism through the media, rock music and the internet.

Be cautious rock lovers, if you’re caught listening to rock music, you will be exorcised!

The Vatican has released an updated list of the seven deadly sins for the modern world:

1. Environmental Pollution
2. Genetic Manipulation
3. Accumulating excessive wealth
4. Inflicting poverty
5. Drug trafficking and consumption
6. Morally debatable experiments
7. Violation of fundamental rights of human nature

I agree with 1, 4, 5, and 7, but the other three are really just plain nonsense.

Firstly, genetic manipulation is one of the most promising forms of health care, and can lead to the eradication of practically every illness and disorder known to man. Personally, if I had the choice to make sure my child was born without any life threatening illnesses, I’d say “yes” without another thought.

Accumulating excessive wealth is fine, as long as you do something good with it. I suppose a good example here would be Bill Gates, who has accumulated a massive fortune, and is now donating more and more each year to charities. Hardly a bad thing. Read the rest of this entry »