I was reading the stuff on the denialist blog over at Science Blogs today, and the brothers have been joined by another doctor, I presume because they are much too busy to keep up a steady stream of posts between the two of them. One of the latest is about christian apologists, which references another website called Evangelical Realism. On that website there are some posts critiquing a book called I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. Though I haven't had the time to read much of it, it looks pretty interesting.

Anyway, back on the denialist blog, someone left a comment that I just had to respond to.

"...if you take a look around, we can't do anything without being castigated for it."

Bullshit. The only people getting castigated are those that feel everyone should believe as they themselves do, that insist on things of others based on their personal belief system alone. There is a good reason the founding fathers sought to keep religion out of government, they actually took the time to learn from our thousands of years of recorded history to see that the alternative always fails miserably. Those being castigated are those that use their religion as a shield presented to the rest of the world as evidence of their sainthood. A christian friend of mine with some sense sees this is well, and is distraught. He says he won't do business with someone that declares their 'faith' up front, it always means they are devious. Not some of the time, always. Those being castigated are those whose actions speak louder than their words, those that do not admit to themselves that humans are fallible, that cannot admit the faults in themselves and work on them, and leave others to work on their own.

I found it hard to express this sentiment, but after thinking about it has become just a little clearer to me. People that feel a need to let everyone know about their religious beliefs at every opportunity bug me. It just seems quirky somehow. What it is, what I haven't been able to put my finger on, is that they expect respect from others, something undeserved. It is undeserved because it is unearned. They believe it is earned though, simply because they have 'faith'. Religious people misrepresent quite a few characteristics that get respect in society, identify them with religious qualities, which is dishonest, then expect others to assume they are endowed with all these qualities simply because they espouse religion.

That made me think of what it is that deserves respect among members of a society, which is nothing more than making some contribution. The concept of human society is based on the idea that everyone contributes, that things are better for everyone when human beings live as a group rather than as individuals. Religion fails in this. Religious or not, members of a society must make a contribution to that society if that system is to succeed for every member. This is key, success for every member. This is what society is all about.

When the system breaks down, when some members benefit more than others, it is because some members are contributing more than others. It would seem that those members that contribute more would reap more of the rewards, but in reality much of history is rife with examples of just the opposite.

Anyway, religion contributes nothing to society because members of a religion concern themselves with supposed situations beyond the death of the individual. The experiences beyond death, rather than present experiences, become the focus. This is why religion fails to benefit society as a whole.

Of course, these are just my opinions.....