The Root of all Evil : The God Delusion
POSTED BY: Calhoun
UPDATED: Thursday, December 17, 2015 06:12
VIEWED: 49488
PAGE 6 of 32
Quote:Yes, that is absurd, but that’s not what I said. What I was pointing out is that the “religion is the root of all violence” theory isn’t even internally consistent. It ignores casualties as a result of wars fought for which there is no religious motivation ascribed, and these are casualties that are the largest in history.
Originally posted by fredgiblet:
But that's just it, most of those either were not fought for atheism or it was only a side issue. You are saying that Stalin was an atheist thus the millions of people he killed were killed in the name of atheism which simply isn't true, it's a non sequitur. The argument you were making sounded like you were saying that every conflict between groups that were not explicitly religious was somehow caused by atheism which is absurd.
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
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Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:Quote:All of the casualties of all of the Crusades are probably not more then 10 million. The Thirty Years War is probably not more then a million. The Inquisitions: a few thousand a piece.
Originally posted by meg1448:
Hundreds of millions isn't that big of a number when you consider the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the Protestant Inquisition, the Thirty Years War, etc....not to mention human sacrifices and the like.
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
Actually, the Thirty Years War had a death toll of about 7 million. I only named a few of the well known ones. Also, think about all the religious martyrs. I'm not only talking about christianity, I'm talking all religions. Think about the constant terrorist attacks in the middle east....it's really not that hard, counting all religions since the beginning of time, for the death toll to rise into the hundred millions. I'm done now, this conversation will just raise my blood pressure.
"Give me religion and a lobotomy."
Beulah Land-Tori Amos
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Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:Quote:Yes, that is absurd, but that’s not what I said. What I was pointing out is that the “religion is the root of all violence” theory isn’t even internally consistent. It ignores casualties as a result of wars fought for which there is no religious motivation ascribed, and these are casualties that are the largest in history.
Originally posted by fredgiblet:
But that's just it, most of those either were not fought for atheism or it was only a side issue. You are saying that Stalin was an atheist thus the millions of people he killed were killed in the name of atheism which simply isn't true, it's a non sequitur. The argument you were making sounded like you were saying that every conflict between groups that were not explicitly religious was somehow caused by atheism which is absurd.
Ah, ok. It's just that this quote:
Quote:Sounds as if you are saying that atheism is to blame for those deaths.
Furthermore, it ignores the violence perpetrated in the name of atheistic philosophies, such as Communism and Fascism, which far exceeds the violence perpetrated in the name of religion.
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Well, I must say that I am TIRED after reading everything before me.
Religiosity to the fuzzy-wuzzies and all of their nougaty goodness and what-not.
Y'all wake me up when the shouting is over. I'll be in my bunk.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"This is why we lost, you know. Superior numbers." "Thanks for the re-enactment, sir."
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Quote:I am. But only insofar as theism is to blame for all the rest. Like I said, it’s not an internally consistent argument. You can’t claim that religion, as Dawkins defines it, is to blame for the world’s violence, because it necessarily ignores Communism and Fascism.
Originally posted by fredgiblet:
Sounds as if you are saying that atheism is to blame for those deaths.
And evidently, I'm shouting, although it didn’t seem that way to me.
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
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Quote:How does being constrained to the evidence of evolution make one a free thinker? Granted I typically accept the theory of evolution to a large degree; there are parts of it that I accept more then others, but I do so because I choose to, and that is what makes me a free thinker, not that I accept a theory because someone else says I have to.
Originally posted by Calhoun:
How can anyone claim to be "free thinking" if they deny all the evidence of evolution?
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
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Quote:
Finn mac Cumhal wrote:
Wednesday, May 23, 2007 15:16
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Calhoun:
How can anyone claim to be "free thinking" if they deny all the evidence of evolution?
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How does being constrained to the evidence of evolution make one a free thinker? Granted I typically accept the theory of evolution to a large degree; there are parts of it that I accept more then others, but I do so because I choose to, and that is what makes me a free thinker, not that I accept a theory because someone else says I have to.
I prefer to accept theories or information in general based on scientific evidence or factual data.
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Originally posted by Calhoun:
How can anyone claim to be "free thinking" if they deny all the evidence of evolution?
What if they don't? I'll say this much: if you look at the history of life on earth, it's been increasing in complexity and diversity. But I don't have to then say, "So therefore there's no God." What if I think random chance is totally implausible?
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Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
All of the casualties of all of the Crusades are probably not more then 10 million. The Thirty Years War is probably not more then a million. The Inquisitions: a few thousand a piece.
Also, don't forget that while the Thirty Years' War may have started over religion, it ended being about political power.
What? Power? There's that word again...
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Quote:
Originally posted by meg1448:
Actually, the Thirty Years War had a death toll of about 7 million. I only named a few of the well known ones. Also, think about all the religious martyrs. I'm not only talking about christianity, I'm talking all religions. Think about the constant terrorist attacks in the middle east....it's really not that hard, counting all religions since the beginning of time, for the death toll to rise into the hundred millions. I'm done now, this conversation will just raise my blood pressure.
So the "hundreds of millions" figure was just pulled out of thin air, then?
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- Grand High Poobah of the Mythical Land of Iowa, and Keeper of State Secrets
- Captain, FFF.net Grammar Police
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