Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Is Richard Dawkins missing the point?

S O Muffin thinks so.

Religion doesn’t make you moral, and doesn’t make you immoral either. Religion (or, for that matter, any “sacred text” – Das Kapital will do) gives you an excuse to be what you anyway intend to be. If you want to be a complete bastard, kill the infidels, take away their land, fly airplanes into their buildings, stone 13-year old girls, hang gays off cranes at the market place, bomb abortion clinics – with little effort you’ll discover all the right sacred quotes to salve your conscience and persuade you that what you are doing is the will of god. However, if you want to spread peace and understanding, comfort the sick, help the powerless, build bridges, reach to your enemies, be a mentsch – well, also then you’ll discover, with equally little effort, all the right sacred quotes to “justify” your actions – if there was any need to justify them.

The true dividing lines are not between religious and atheists. They are between bastards and the mentsch, of all creeds and none.

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