Speech for my Public Speaking class

[NoFearNoLimits]

I'm giving a speech in class today.  I'm guessing 90% of my class is religious, so it will probably piss some people off    I just finished writing it, here it is.

Why faith should not be considered a virtue, and why we would be better off without religion.  The definition of faith I’m referring to is a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence.

Faith Kills
Islam is now the single biggest religious denomination in the world.  Muslims account for 19.2 percent of the world population.  While Catholics account for 17.4 percent.

The educational backgrounds of 75 terrorists behind some of the most significant recent terrorist attacks against Westerners were examined. They  found that a majority of them are college-educated, often in technical subjects like engineering. In the four attacks for which the most complete information about the perpetrators' educational levels is available - the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the 9/11 attacks, and the Bali bombings in 2002 - 53 percent of the terrorists had either attended college or had received a college degree. As a point of reference, only 52 percent of Americans have been to college. The terrorists in this study thus appear, on average, to be as well educated as many Americans.  What causes college educated men to become suicide bombers?  Faith.  The belief that killing non believers in the name of their god will send them straight to paradise.  Here is a quote from Sam Harris’s book End of Faith.

"The men who committed the atrocities of September 11 were certainly not "cowards," as they were repeatedly described in the Western media, nor were they lunatics in any ordinary sense. They were men of faithâ€"perfect faith, as it turns out, and this, it must finally be acknowledged, is a terrible thing to be."

Some people might say that it’s the extremists of religion that are the problem.  I argue that Extremists know what it’s like to really believe.  They have complete faith.  They don’t just pick and choose which parts they are going to take seriously.  Some people have enough faith to take these books literally word for word.  After all, these moral guide books that they have faith in are supposed to be perfect.  Well we are lucky that in this country we have a separation of church and state.  I can give you an example of what it would be like if there wasn’t.   Recently Sharia courts in Afghanistan have sentenced a man to death.  What could he have possibly done to deserve this punishment?  He  downloaded a document about women’s rights from the internet.

The Inquisition lasted for over 300 years.  People were burned at the stake for many reasons which included falsely professing Christianity, atheism, belonging to some other religion except Christianity, or disputing the Church's interpretation of the Christian Bible.  Some people may think since a religion has lasted for so long it must make it even more important.  When you look at the options these people were given it is no surprise, and not something to be proud of.  


Faith Heals
The Church of Christian Science.  A two-year old baby girl, dies of a treatable lung infection, as her mother "...follows church guidelines..." . In Florida, a family withheld "insulin" from their "diabetic daughter" which resulted in her death. In 1984, Natalie, an 8-month-old child died "...of complications from a flu-like illness..." and in March of the same year a 4-year-old girl "...died of meningitis..." These are just a few of the countless cases.  Why did this happen?  Christian Scientists rely on god and the power of prayer instead of medicine for healing.

At least 50 people in India have lost their sight after staring at the sun hoping to see an image of the Virgin Mary, according to reports.
Alarmed health authorities in India's Kottayam district have set up a sign dispelling rumours of a miraculous image in the sky and warning of the dangers of looking into direct sunlight.
Forty-eight cases of sight-loss, allegedly caused by photochemical burns on the retina, have been recorded at St Joseph's ENT and Eye hospital in the region since Friday.
Despite warnings, and the potentially harmful effects of their actions, believers are allegedly still flocking to a hotelier's house in Erumeli near where the divine image is said to have appeared.
Even churches in the area have disowned the miracle after health officers and doctors approached the clergy.  I found it ironic how the church disowned the miracle only after all these people had gone blind.  


Faith vs. Science
There was a time when religion ruled the world. It was known as the dark ages.  At the center of the Dark Ages stood the Christian Bible. All scientific thought which contradicted the Bible was suppressed, with the most famous example being the ancient knowledge that the earth revolved around the sun.
The Christian Bible states very clearly that the sun revolves around the earth. The result was that for centuries the important astronomical discovery that the sun was the center of the universe was deliberately suppressed by the church, with proponents of the non-Christian theory being persecuted for their endeavors.
Another famous suppression of scientific advance created by the church was the belief that the earth was round. The Bible talks very clearly of the four corners of the earth, therefore, the church argued, it must be square. This dogmatic belief was quietly dropped only when the voyages of discovery finally proved beyond debate that the earth was round: despite this fact having been known by the non-Christian Classical Greeks since the time of Alexander.
Much like during the dark ages we still have this problem even today.  This is an article from the creationist museum website.  The story we have all heard from movies, television, newspapers, and most magazines and textbooks is that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. According to evolutionists, the dinosaurs ‘ruled the Earth’ for 140 million years, dying out about 65 million years ago. However, scientists do not dig up anything labeled with those ages. They only uncover dead dinosaurs (i.e., their bones), and their bones do not have labels attached telling how old they are. The idea of millions of years of evolution is just the evolutionists’ story about the past. No scientist was there to see the dinosaurs live through this supposed dinosaur age. In fact, there is no proof whatsoever that the world and its fossil layers are millions of years old. No scientist observed dinosaurs die. Scientists only find the bones in the here and now, and because many of them are evolutionists, they try to fit the story of the dinosaurs into their view.
Other scientists, called creation scientists, have a different idea about when dinosaurs lived. They believe they can solve any of the supposed dinosaur mysteries and show how the evidence fits wonderfully with their ideas about the past, beliefs that come from the Bible.
As you add up all of the dates, and accepting that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to Earth almost 2000 years ago, we come to the conclusion that the creation of the Earth and animals (including the dinosaurs) occurred only thousands of years ago (perhaps only 6000!), not millions of years. Thus, if the Bible is right (and it is!), dinosaurs must have lived within the past thousands of years.  (Image of a Dinosaur with a saddle on it, I can only hope that wasn’t an actual part of the museum)  Due to these great reasons for creationism many people continue to deny evolution even though the majority of scientists consider evolution a fact.  There’s a reason they don’t teach creationism in schools.


I think children should be given a choice of what to believe in, instead of being forced into a religion when they are too young to understand.  In no way is saying believe in this or be tortured for eternity not forcing someone into a religion.  It sounds more like brainwashing to me.

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." - Albert Einstein

Stem-cell research is one of the most promising developments in the last century of medicine.  It could offer therapeutic breakthroughs for every disease or injury process that human beings suffer.  This research may also be essential for our understanding of cancer, along with a wide variety of developmental disorders.  Yet again religion manages to suppress scientific progress.  This only serves in prolonging the misery of tens of millions of human beings.  

You are either a person searching for truth or a person who has faith you were born into a religion that already has the truth.  It’s time for people to wake up, and decide where they stand.  I’m in no way saying everything would be great without religion.  I’m saying good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things.  We certainly don’t get our morals from any of these holy books, religion is just one more thing to fight over, one more reason to divide people, and in my opinion we would be better off without it.  Faith in yourself, in people, in humanity is all that is needed.

[Kyuuketsuki]

Good Speech!

Kyu

[rlrose328]

Great speech!  You did a great job.

I do have a few comments.  First, the use of the word "evolutionist" is widely debated among those who believe in evolution.  Evolutionist is the term given by creatists to create the "two sides of the coin" controversy.  I'd use "those who support evolution" instead.

Second, this part:

Much like during the dark ages we still have this problem even today. This is an article from the creationist museum website. The story we have all heard from movies, television, newspapers, and most magazines and textbooks is that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. According to evolutionists, the dinosaurs ‘ruled the Earth’ for 140 million years, dying out about 65 million years ago. However, scientists do not dig up anything labeled with those ages. They only uncover dead dinosaurs (i.e., their bones), and their bones do not have labels attached telling how old they are. The idea of millions of years of evolution is just the evolutionists’ story about the past. No scientist was there to see the dinosaurs live through this supposed dinosaur age. In fact, there is no proof whatsoever that the world and its fossil layers are millions of years old. No scientist observed dinosaurs die. Scientists only find the bones in the here and now, and because many of them are evolutionists, they try to fit the story of the dinosaurs into their view.

It sounds like you're either being sarcastic through this entire paragraph and the sarcasm gets lost by the end, or that you've switched gears and are now arguing as a creationist, i.e., making fun of these facts, especially the last line.  I can see how it reads as sarcasm... but does this length of sarcasm belong in a speech?

And third, yes... the picture of a dinosaur with a saddle is from the Creationism Museum.  Scary, eh?

Let us know how the speech goes, eh?  

[NoFearNoLimits]

Great speech!  You did a great job.

I do have a few comments.  First, the use of the word "evolutionist" is widely debated among those who believe in evolution.  Evolutionist is the term given by creatists to create the "two sides of the coin" controversy.  I'd use "those who support evolution" instead.

Second, this part:

Much like during the dark ages we still have this problem even today. This is an article from the creationist museum website. The story we have all heard from movies, television, newspapers, and most magazines and textbooks is that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. According to evolutionists, the dinosaurs ‘ruled the Earth’ for 140 million years, dying out about 65 million years ago. However, scientists do not dig up anything labeled with those ages. They only uncover dead dinosaurs (i.e., their bones), and their bones do not have labels attached telling how old they are. The idea of millions of years of evolution is just the evolutionists’ story about the past. No scientist was there to see the dinosaurs live through this supposed dinosaur age. In fact, there is no proof whatsoever that the world and its fossil layers are millions of years old. No scientist observed dinosaurs die. Scientists only find the bones in the here and now, and because many of them are evolutionists, they try to fit the story of the dinosaurs into their view.

It sounds like you're either being sarcastic through this entire paragraph and the sarcasm gets lost by the end, or that you've switched gears and are now arguing as a creationist, i.e., making fun of these facts, especially the last line.  I can see how it reads as sarcasm... but does this length of sarcasm belong in a speech?

And third, yes... the picture of a dinosaur with a saddle is from the Creationism Museum.  Scary, eh?

Let us know how the speech goes, eh?    Wow, I guess dinosaurs were like horses back then.

[wazzz]

well speech NoFearNoLimits
don’t be afraid of the truth no matter what happens
I liked Faith vs. Science Section
ya the Dark Ages made Europe so Awful  :upset:

The Christian Bible states very clearly that the sun revolves around the earth.’ :brick:
that lead us that A christen God is False sorry Jesus  but that’s a Fact   (:
but we can’t deny that some great Explorations based on  religion ,those who did those explorations  were  based on religion ideas  such specially  JEW , Muslim Scientist

for example i’ve read about a jew Scientist in WW2 he invented some kind new weapons sorry but i’ve read it long time ago and forgot the details anyway the price was Jerusalem , lots of them was doing hardwork for This holy City and now they got it
It’s a long list but some did that according to God

[NoFearNoLimits]

Well I presented my speech on Thursday, I just edited it a little and added some stuff.  Some people had a shocked look on their face, and others looked kind of pissed.  As soon as I finished stating that my topic was on why faith shouldn't be considered a virtue I heard a big gasp from someone lol.  Also I heard someone say something when I got to "extremists don’t just pick and choose which parts they are going to take seriously."  I'm pretty sure 90% off my class is religious, probably even my teacher.  They still clapped when I was done, i'm sure some of them were offended though.  Thanks to whoever posted that article about people going blind from staring at the sun looking for the virgin mary  I wanted to add how much of these holy books have to be proved wrong before people stop clinging to them.  I had to cut it short though.  Thanks to everyone who commented.

[Squid]

Great speech!  You did a great job.

I do have a few comments.  First, the use of the word "evolutionist" is widely debated among those who believe in evolution.  Evolutionist is the term given by creatists to create the "two sides of the coin" controversy.  I'd use "those who support evolution" instead.

I agree with rlrose328 on this one.  I accept the theory of evolution as valid yet I would not call myself an "evolutionist".  To me it sounds as silly as calling myself a Newtonian Mechanicist for accepting the validity of Newtonian physics.  However, I think the term "evolutionist" was possibly a reaction to the term "creationist" - unfortunately I do not know the history of either term which may be interesting to research.