News:

Nitpicky? Hell yes.

Main Menu

Hello

Started by Islador, October 30, 2010, 01:44:21 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Islador

Hello everyone,

I'm a life-long atheist although it wasn't until I read The God Delusion in my late teens that I realised this and had for years been putting myself down as Chruch of England on the census simply because that was my cultural identity even if I didn't actually believe in God. As you can already no doubt guess my parents are Church of England but I was fortunate because my parents had no expectation that their children should adopt their religion or political views and consequently myself and my siblings are all atheists and hold quite different political views from our parents and each other. That said Church of England had a positive impact on my life as Sunday School and Church Services were very much devoted to teaching tolerance and kindness through Bible stories who moral message fell in line with contemporary moral thinking and I have no recollection of any group being targets of predjudice.

Now that I'm older and a little more wordly in my outlook on life and recognise that one shouldn't hold a view just because its written in a religious text because this is too arbitrary and can just as easily promote immoral views and beliefs as it can promote moral views and beliefs. I could have turned out a very different person if my parents and local church were not so keen on promoting tolerance and kindness and there, in my mind, lies the danger of religion.

As such I am a keen secularist so that the arbitrary views of the religious are no imposed on others. I am also keen to see the religious upbringing of children curtailed so that children aren't pushed into the holding the arbitrary religious beliefs and views of the religion they were raised in. Recognising that this removes from a childs life a source of moral instruction I would promote humanism as an alternative to a religious upbringing.

I also extend this to politics as in my experience many people hold to a particular political viewpoint because they were raised in it and not because its neccessarily the most morally and ethically acceptable political stance to take. All too often I see decisions being made in politics that make little sense but are popular and options being ignored because they are politically inconvienient and this bothers me as much as as people making decisions on the basis of religious belief.

Anyway thats enough for now and I'll see you around


Islador

Tom62

The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.
Robert A. Heinlein

The Magic Pudding

Greetings and assorted smilies  lol  :P  :|

wildfire_emissary

Hi! Welcome aboard mate. :headbang:
"All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." -Voltaire

Tank

Welcome aboard to another fan of TLotR?

Regards
Chris
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

jduster

welcome.

i'm glad to see you rised above mediocrity.

Islador

Quote from: "Tank"Welcome aboard to another fan of TLotR?

Regards
Chris

Yup my mum read it to me when I was little and I've loved it since then.