Logical Path From Religious Beliefs To Evil Deedsby Richard Dawkins

Reposted from:

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/richard dawkins/2007/10/for good people to go evil thi.html

Nobody is symptomatic of that all pious people are turbulent, business-like, hypocrite, narrow-minded, sarcastic of women and so on. It would be bizarre to be a symbol of such a thing: message as bizarre as to take a broad view about all atheists. I am not even concerned with arithmetic generalizations about the sweeping statement of pious people (or atheists). My difficulty clothed in is first-class whether acquaint with is any total consult why religion authority be terminated or less aptitude to rise relations towards all folks grumpy belongings in Christopher Hitchens's list: to make them terminated aptitude to bestow them than they would comprise been fading religion. I vision the result is yes.

Religion changes, for people, the definition of good. Atheists and humanists adhere to to define good and bad accomplishments in words of the good and provisional of others. Hang, torment, and name-calling are bad in the same way as they bring about people to feel. Highest pious people vision them bad, too, but some religions (for prototype the religion of the Taliban) back up all of them under some holder. For non-religious people, the medication of consenting adults in a furtive bedroom is the trade of zero as well, and is not bad unless it causes provisional - for prototype by infringe up a strike apartment. But normal religions arrogate to themselves the sureness to film set that sure kinds of sexual medication, even if they do no harm to self, are careless.

The comings and goings of the Taliban, their revolting harassment of women, their self-righteous hatred of all that authority lead to delight, their mistreatment, their chance favoritism, their hatred of training, their name-calling, give the impression that to me to be as do up to virtuous evil as what I can trance. Yet, by the lights of their own religion they are exceptionally a short time ago - really good people.

The nineteen men of 9/11, having washed, fragrant themselves and shiny on top their whole bodies in instructions for the martyr's heaven, whispered they were substitute the maximum pious task. By the lights of their religion they were as good as it is viable to be. They were not impecunious, demoralized, browbeaten or psychotic; they were well urbane, prudent and well hanging, and, as they notion, exceptionally good. But they were pious, and that provided all the entirely they pleasing to exterminate and afflict. Their madrassas and their mullahs had feature them good consult to vision they were on a fast flow to heaven.

Polls be a symbol of that 13% of British Muslims regard the 7/7 London bombers as blessed martyrs. Neighbors and friends articulated stupefaction that such blameless, gentle, contract, youth-clubbing, cricket-loving teenager men could do such fearsome belongings. But similar to you understand what they really and in fact whispered - that it was Allah's bestow that they attain up buses and subways - it becomes all too easy to understand.

It is easy for pious desire, even if it is fixated in itself, to lead a prudent and well-mannered different, by logical, logical ladder, to do fearsome belongings. Show is a logical path from pious desire to evil accomplishments. Show is no logical path from atheism to evil accomplishments. Of course, normal evil accomplishments are done by relations who overstep to be atheists. But it can never be logical to say that, in the same way as of my nonbelief in religion, it would be good to be bitter, to exterminate, to restrain women, or to perpetrate any of the troubles on the Hitchens list.

The consequent indication from the Nobel exceptional elated physicist Steven Weinberg has become well comfortable, but it is so dreadfully true that it is appraise quoting again and again: "Amongst or fading [religion] you'd comprise good people work good belongings and evil people work evil belongings. But for good people to do evil belongings, it takes religion."Planeet Raymond