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Am I an asshole for defending science?
9 years ago
One of my few hobbies is to roam around the youtubes and attack people who attack science. Generally, the tone of the comment to which I'm responding dictates the tone of my response. If the comment is condescending, rude, dismissive, or belligerent, I'll usually respond in kind. On the flip side, if the comment seems to be made in good faith and brings up legitimate questions or concerns, then I try to be polite and informative with my response. The one thing that I need to make clear is that I do not go to creationist/flat-earther/conspiracy theorist videos and attack them. I go to videos on evolution, cosmology, atheism, etc. and respond to comments there...and I do this a LOT. I wouldn't be surprised if I've logged over 10,000 comments on youtube in the past 12 months.
Now, on to my question. Something that's been coming up more and more recently is that I'm the bad guy for attacking religion. If I want to attack the arguments being made by the person, fine, but the fact that I'm then going past that and targeting the commentor's religion makes me into a villain who is attacking something that is a central part of many peoples' lives.
For the reference of those who may not know me well, here is my opinion on religion. I feel that, while it can be used for good and has positive aspects, I feel it is an overall negative influence. Religion offers a medium for good people to do good things, and for bad people to do bad things just like any other group that has influence and power. Religion, though, is unique in my experience because it alone has the power to make good people do bad things. People who are otherwise nice, caring, and open-minded can be duped into opposing equal rights for various groups, voting for politicians who are regressive, neglecting medical care for themselves and others in favor of "faith healing," and opposing the scientific consensus on important topics such as evolution, climate change, stem cell research, and cosmology.
My question is this: by attacking religion as a whole rather than just the anti-science arguments being forwarded, am I making myself the bad guy? If yes, am i justified in doing so anyways?
Now, on to my question. Something that's been coming up more and more recently is that I'm the bad guy for attacking religion. If I want to attack the arguments being made by the person, fine, but the fact that I'm then going past that and targeting the commentor's religion makes me into a villain who is attacking something that is a central part of many peoples' lives.
For the reference of those who may not know me well, here is my opinion on religion. I feel that, while it can be used for good and has positive aspects, I feel it is an overall negative influence. Religion offers a medium for good people to do good things, and for bad people to do bad things just like any other group that has influence and power. Religion, though, is unique in my experience because it alone has the power to make good people do bad things. People who are otherwise nice, caring, and open-minded can be duped into opposing equal rights for various groups, voting for politicians who are regressive, neglecting medical care for themselves and others in favor of "faith healing," and opposing the scientific consensus on important topics such as evolution, climate change, stem cell research, and cosmology.
My question is this: by attacking religion as a whole rather than just the anti-science arguments being forwarded, am I making myself the bad guy? If yes, am i justified in doing so anyways?
Usually I attack what is wrong with science and try to present evidence there and maybe that will make them realize that they have been tricked, but then that is the power of religion is the unquestioning and unwavering faith in one's beliefs, that the ideology of religion is to effectively "brainwash" in some cases, now there are those who are religious but still have a place for science, but they also tend to be far more rational in the first place where the former seem to just be more emotional and more fearful which is usually what causes people to be more traditional. Also interestingly there is a different in size of the Amygdala in those who are more conservative vs those who are more open minded and progressive.
I think that the one thing I hate about America, is that we have trained this ideology of that no one's beliefs should be questioned and that we are free to believe in what we want, which is fine, but again it seems to have the caveat of that you are not allowed to be skeptical and voice that skepticism.
if you want to look deeper, look at what are considered the deadly sins of a particular religions and compare them, or even compare key figured between religions. So why worry about Christians, can feel sorry for them but for the most part in current society they are mostly harmless. Heck look as Westburro, one of the most hate filled one.. and they still avoid physical violence and instead take to insulting people and acting like fools.
Earlier you said that religion is the only ideology that causes good people to do bad things, I disagree. I think anybody who takes any idiology to its fullest can end up being lead to do bad things.
a few odd ideas i have that I think would help with some of the stupidity are things like just abolishing marriage as a government function at all.. have a legal union that would encompass what marriage is ( yea just changing the word but not the function I think would remove a lot of problems.. expect those that want to do the whole rub it in their opposition faces types.
good to know there's literally nothing else that exists that can have a negative influence on whatever your idea of good people behavior is. seriously, good to know. now so long as i stay away from reLIEgion it looks like i'll never make a single moral failing that was influenced by any other outside opinion or even substance. jesus can suck it, i've found my way to eternal purity
Those both involve ideology or oppression. But it doesn't even take that. You know what has caused nearly every war in history? Scarcity. Nothing else has inspired good people to do bad things like scarcity. With that in mind, I don't even know what Weinberg is trying to say; it's such a double standard, too.
You're lying to yourself if you think that the Church never inspired anyone to do good that they would not have otherwise done. I'm not saying the Church is perfect, but look at all the food drives and international relief efforts. Those wouldn't just spontaneously occur without an influence like the Church.
And people have killed the innocent to keep their own children from starving. Do you think that these people were already evil? Maybe not paragons of virtue, but not necessarily "evil." Which means Weinberg is full of shit.
Funny you should mention France. What about the slaughter of Church officials throughout the Reign of Terror? You think that, and the killings of the religious by the Khmer Rouge had no inspiration from the peoples' atheism? So atheism gets a free pass because it has no dogma, because there are ulterior motives in using it as a justification to kill?
Bullshit.
Skin color has no dogma, but people kill and oppress in the name of it. You can use anything as a justification to kill others, and atheism doesn't have a get out of jail free card.
And that's what happened with religion in all the examples you cited. These people rarely get their ideas from their texts. Religion is more than anything an excuse in these conflicts. Purely religiously motivated conflicts are extremely rare, leaders just use religious rhetoric as a means to influence the population into supporting them.
And why do you act as though religion creates these heinous ideologies that are ruining the world? Before the spread of Christianity throughout Europe, nobody had a problem with things like infanticide. Your view is overly one-sided and you're willingly ignoring contradictory evidence.
There was a reason Bibles were rarely translated by the way.
And I never said you need churches to do good things. But considering that the Catholic Church remains one of the biggest contributors to relief efforts in Africa, it sure as shit isn't a hindrance.
P.S. The Catholic Church, the Pope specifically, actively discouraged use of condoms in Africa, scaring people with the thought of going to hell if they used protection. The result: a massive reduction in condom usage followed by a massive spike in HIV transmission. I bet the Africans with AIDS are so happy they get to die slightly better fed.
I am an atheist... and I believe in the scientific method to believe in something... as a previous user said. If that person (whatever it is) wants to prove something to me. I will ask for conclusive proof that what he said is true.
My expectations with the Evangelist were not very good... One day they were passing by my house... they told me that if I did not believe in God... I would not achieve what I proposed in the end... that makes me very angry. .. because they dared in my own house to tell me that faith in myself is useless...
and I have faith in myself... because I know that I exist because I can trust in myself... because I know I can achieve my goals if I set out to do it and I do not need to believe in someone else to believe in me... (in my opinion, that is something absurd)... even so... I continue to respect the different thought ... I keep trying to be a good person... Without depending on someone else. Only from my education that led me to be what I am today...
and I think that... as I dislike some comment... Religion was necessary at some point in our history... because it was useful against people... but now... it is not so well the thing. I believe that religion is necessary because there are people who need it... even so... nothing to the extreme is good. Whatever it is... when it becomes... bigotry... in these cases... The situation is already out of control.
PS: English is not my primary language and I use the google translator. I apologize for any misunderstanding I may cause. ':3
PS.2: I do not know if it bothers you that I commented after so long but I thought it would be good to give my opinion. ':3