Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheese
Well the USA population is ~300M so thats a pretty big value. We could trek over to the mid east or asia and the results would be the same. Regardless, the religious are taught, anywhere they exist, that atheists are evil, we are the devil incarnate.
One day a man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father got into a fight with one of the Israelite men. During the fight, this son of an Israelite woman blasphemed the LORD’s name. So the man was brought to Moses for judgment. His mother’s name was Shelomith. She was the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. They put the man in custody until the LORD’s will in the matter should become clear. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and tell all those who heard him to lay their hands on his head. Then let the entire community stone him to death. Say to the people of Israel: Those who blaspheme God will suffer the consequences of their guilt and be punished. Anyone who blasphemes the LORD’s name must be stoned to death by the whole community of Israel. Any Israelite or foreigner among you who blasphemes the LORD’s name will surely die. (Leviticus 24:10-16 NLT)
Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)
Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed. (Exodus 22:19 NAB)
|
So, this is patently false and your usage of passages from the Old Testament is grossly misleading at best or utterly irrelevant at worst.
In the first place, I don't presume to speak for all religions "anywhere they exist," but as a religious person I suspect I am eminently more qualified to address the supposition than are you. I was raised in a pretty conservative Evangelical household and was never led to believe by my parents, pastors or teachers that atheists were evil—at least not any more so than anyone else. In my upbringing atheists were to be pitied for having been grossly misled, and it was incumbent upon us as "believers" to enlighten atheists to the truth of the gospel and salvation. I presently do my best to teach my children that all people deserve our respect and good will regardless of their religion, culture, or rejection thereof. I don't personally know a single individual in my own vast network of practicing Christians, Jews and Muslims who would endorse any such hatred against atheists. This is a straw man and you should know better.
Second, your citation of ancient invectives utterly fails in the light of the socio-religious context of the day in which these were written. Without going into much detail, (1) "blasphemy" is NOT synonymous with "atheism"—it was the careless usage of the name of a deity in a culture that subscribed supernatural significance to the act of "naming." (2) The rejection of a verdict pronounced by a judge or a priest is actually a piece of primitive civil legislation with an unfortunately barbaric consequence. This is the antiquated equivalent to modern charges of contempt or abrogation for a governing civil or judicial authority and again, it has nothing to do with atheism. (3) The third passage is most absurd, since it is an invective precisely
against something exclusively religious (performing a cultic act on behalf of another god than YHWH) which presumes theism—NOT atheism.
Yes. It is true that religion inflames tribalistic instincts that threaten our peaceful coexistence as a species, but you are only exacerbating the problem with your tired, ignorant, drive-by straw-man depictions of "religion."