Reply to How I Lost My Faith: A thread for atheist testimony

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was raised in the 1960s and ‘70s by a Christian mother and Jewish father, both of whom were fairly religious. But they decided to raise my sister and me in both religions so that we could choose which we wanted as we grew older. However, both of us never became at all religious.

I guess I was always a skeptic. I remember as a little kid in Sunday school asking who invented God, and basically being told to be quiet. The older I got the less I wanted to believe in a god who let there be wars, starving babies, and other atrocities if he was all powerful. And if such a being existed, I did not want to praise or worship something that let terrible things happen.

[/quote]

so you live in a world of starving babies and wars, without a god.

Who do you blame for the starving babies and wars? This is not at all an argument or criticism of your beliefs. i promise. I am interested in who you blame for these terrible things?[/quote]

Your response is classic religious pre-suppositionalism.  It makes the assumption that there must be somebody supernatural to blame. Here’s something that you should find edifying: when you don’t believe in the supernatural being, you blame wars on the people who start them. you blame starving babies on the people who have the ability to stop a baby from starving and don’t.

That’s who you blame.  The people responsible.

See how easy that was to answer?[/quote]

+1 million.  And I would argue that the worldview you espouse (blaming those actually responsible) would lead to a better society, to us evolving as a society and as humans, to a more peaceful world, to being able to eventually rise above the struggles and war and suffering.     THIS is why religion is dangerous to humanity.   It is a subtle but powerful idea.  [/quote]

You're conflating two things that are not mutually exclusive. You can be religious and put blame where it belongs, or be atheist and not put blame on those responsible. Ending religions clearly won't bring peace and end all struggles and suffering, because it doesn't change human nature at all. There has been oppression, scapegoating, and war in every society that has outlawed religion. Crack open a history book.[/quote]

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