An Atheist Manifesto

[semerkhet]

taken from innocent_man's journal. If anyone is interested in reading this and discussing it, I'd be happy to.

article

Comments

[michael_va]

I've recently had to admit to myself that most people could easily slide back into the demon haunted world that medieval peasants believed themselves to be living in. Rather than being an unlikely possibility, it is a path of least resistance from which they must be headed off, like cattle from a gully leading to an alkaline pond. This is the norm of human nature. The Dark Age was not an aberration but a base state that human society has a natural tendency to devolve into. Pandering to the fundamentalists out of political expediency is just putting one's self at the front of the stampede

[semerkhet]

I agree that this manifesto is meant to shock believers and meant to evoke a feeling of, dare I say it, righteous anger in sympathetic readers

[michael_va]

Unfortunately, calmly advocating moderation and tolerance does not get most people highly motivated, inciting emotions like greed, fear and hatred does. The fundamentalists know this very well and use this tactic shamelessly. It is the secret of their success