Oh, the nauseating tendency...

[xSilverPhinx]

...of most religious people to take the moral high ground where most don't belong, and their black-and-white thinking which they are blind to. 

This is a bit of a rant so bear with me.

Someone posted this quote on another forum:

The wicked fear the good, because the good are a constant reproach to their consciences. The ungodly like religion in the same way they like lions, either dead or behind bars; they fear religion when it breaks loose and begins to challenge their consciences.
-Bishop Fulton Sheen

Personally I like lions free where they belong, in nature reserves, so that isn't applicable to me but anyhow...

To me it was always the other way round. The religious fear atheism because it challenges the status quo. Why then do some people such as Bishop Sheen seem so adamant in their belief that religion (excluding extremists, who are dangerous, and religious meddling in State affairs) is the bogey-man of an atheist's nightmare? Most atheists I know don't care enough about religion to bother, and those who do were set off by someone or something. Most also seem to have a more developed moral compass than the childish black-and-white thinking religious person.   

The Catholic church would do well to get its own affairs in order before setting out to morally attack those who don't believe - I hear it's a great place for paedophiles to seek protection. 

[Sandra Craft]

"We have the monopoly cornered on morality" seems to be standard assumption #2 of many religious -- #1 being, of course, "Our god exists and no evidence is necessary to accept that". 

That Sheen could make the statement he did suggests to me both that he has never really talked with any atheist, or thought seriously about Xtian morality and the Catholic church.  It sounds like all he's done is spend his career swallowing and parroting assumptions, which would explain why he's been so successful as a priest.

[No one]

It's like the old saying, Religion is like a penis. It's fine if you have one. It's even fine if you're proud of it. Just don't wave it in my face.

[Icarus]

I find it puzzling that the hard shell xtians almost all believe that they can terrify us by quoting one bible passage or another.  As a generality, we know more about the bible than practicing Christians do.  If Bishop Sheen believes that we fear "the good", he is way off the mark. 

[xSilverPhinx]

I can't think of any other reason besides wanting to stimulate an "us versus them" or ingroup and outgroup mentality in their herd, other than just plain ol' stupidity. 

[No one]

I can't think of any other reason besides wanting to stimulate an "us versus them" or ingroup and outgroup mentality in their herd, other than just plain ol' stupidity. 

That describes humanity in a nut shell.

[Guardian85]

It's like the old saying, Religion is like a penis. It's fine if you have one. It's even fine if you're proud of it. Just don't wave it in my face.

...and don't try to force it into little kids.