Entry 745, on 2008-04-16 at 16:09:03 (Rating 4, Religion)
I have a few favourite quotes by notable figures in history. One is by Winston Churchill who said: "Democracy is the worst form of government... apart from all the rest". On a less philosophical note he once (allegedly) responded to a woman at a party who accused him of being a drunk like this: "Woman: You sir, are drunk! Churchill: And you madam, are ugly, but at least I'll be sober in the morning". There are many others as well, but the one I wanted to refer to here was by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels who said: "Tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth".
This is often quite true. When people hear the same thing over and over again the idea sort of insinuates its way into their psyche and they start accepting it as true. Politicians know this very well but its never been honed to such perfection by anyone except religious believers. They are so good at telling lies that they have even convinced themselves that the lies are true!
Where is all of this leading? Well, I just listened to a podcast from the "Infidel Guy". He's a veteran podcaster from the US who concentrates on religion and other forms of superstition. He was interviewing Sam Harris, the controversial author of books on the subject of religion such as "Letter to a Christian Nation", and what he had to say was quite interesting.
One of the most annoying and insulting accusations made by religious people against atheists is that without religion there can be no morality. The implication is that atheists are immoral scoundrels who can't be trusted. A poll held in the US showed that atheism is the one characteristic that would guarantee to stop a person from becoming president. Even gays and Muslims were trusted more!
The fact is that only atheism can guarantee real morality. Moral behaviour doesn't come from an old book or a religious leader's ideas of what is right and wrong. If we really knew there was a god and that his wishes were clear then maybe that might be a worthwhile basis for a real morality, but these requirements certainly haven't been met. So by basing morality on religion we almost guarantee that we can overlook the real issues of reducing suffering and maximising happiness for the greatest number and instead concentrate on ancient taboos against abortion, homosexuality, and other issues religious people seem to be hung up about.
Sam Harris put it very astutely when he observed that the amount of immoral behaviour in a mostly atheist organisation like the (American) National Academy of Sciences isn't exactly overwhelming. He admitted there were no statistics to prove it but he thought that the amount of child abuse by the academy's members was probably considerably less than that by Catholic priests. And the number of atheists rampaging around the Middle East and blowing themselves up was probably a bit less than the number of devout Muslims. Also atheists don't tend to kill people as much as religious nuts who object to abortion doctors just doing their job.
Yes its clear to me that the idea that morality needs religion is just another brilliant lie being spread by those who feel the need to artificially prop up their fake beliefs with mind numbing propaganda. Goebbels would be proud of them!
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