Subj : Re: "Hams to the Rescue After Katrina" MSNBC News Article
To   : alt.ham-radio.vhf-uhf,rec.radio.amateur.antenna,rec.radio.amateur.dx,rec.radio.amateur.equipment,rec.radio.amateur.policy
From : Matt Osborn
Date : Fri Sep 23 2005 11:30:51

From Newsgroup: alt.ham-radio.vhf-uhf

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 20:28:58 -0700, Zoran Brlecic
<...WA7AA...@get.lost> wrote:

>Matt Osborn wrote:
>
>
>> In all cases, they believe and act according to their beliefs.  That
>> the atheists fall prey to their unrecognized beliefs cannot be
>> disputed.
>
>And this is because you say so?

Please counter the argument.  If atheists do not have faith in their
beliefs, then upon what basis would they judge their choices?

>> I do not deny that both are fallible, however, history demonstrates
>> that the religious, despite their failures, have improved the human
>> condition immeasurably where atheists have been only a blight upon
>> civilization.
>
>
>??? You have got to be kidding? What has religion possibly done for 
>anyone except provided false hope while stealing their money?

Law itself is derived directly from religious thought. If there were
no belief system, there could be no law. Dictatorships have no law,
that's what makes them so awful.

>Stifling science (from Galileo to stem cells), witch burning, condoning 
>slavery, religious genocide on unprecedented scale, eradicating whole 
>civilizations, oppressing women, condoning fascism and 
>national-socialism, suppressing human rights for minorities, huge waste 
>of resources that could be better spent elsewhere, contributing to 
>millions of dead from AIDS by banning contraceptives, flaming national 
>and religious intolerance from Ireland to Palestine, and I could go on 
>forever...
>
>As for your "blight" comment, a majority of scientists are atheists, for 
>example. The percentage increases with education. That's education *not* 
>Kansas style.
>

Do not attribute to religion the faults of mankind. Religion is a much
broader concept than that represented by any known religion.

While you're assessment of some religions at a particular point in
time are on the mark, you overlook that same religion at an earlier or
later point in time when it was substantially different.

Like all things implemented by man, some succeed in their stated
purpose and others fail.


-- msosborn at msosborn dot com

.