Marin County CA

wrote in message
oups.com...
Again, Claire, I'm not trying to be unduly critical, and I intend to
ignore what my detractors say. I thought you needed some feedback on
how you come across on here, to me at least. You really need to face
the fact that religion has exactly nothing of relevance to offer to
anyone, and that religion has caused much more harm to the world than
good. (Ironically, perhaps, your own post makes this point.) While it
is indeed challenging to realize that the universe is meaningless, it
is even worse to believe in something really stupid like religion.
Religion offers no meaningful code of moral conduct, and even if it
did, by definition the various religions would be in conflict about
what such a moral code would be and that would create more hatred and
discontent than having no religious moral codes would create.
Religions are for those people who are too timid to admit that the
universe is meaningless and that everyone needs to discover his/her own
moral code the hard way.

Ah, some meat for the Great Ed Dolan!

I have been an atheist since my teenage years, but I grew up immersed in the
Catholic faith.

Let us grant that everything you say is true. It is all irrelevant because
man needs religion just he needs air to breath. It is part of what it means
to be a human being. It goes with our species. Simply put, man cannot live
without religion.

Yes, you and I can, but we are an infinitesimal minority. What happens to
societies which try to do away with religion? Something else much worse
comes in to fill the vacuum. Communism in the Soviet Union was as much a
religion as any other, but a very bad religion. No thank you. I will take my
Roman Catholicism any old day over Communism.

A very small number of men will be able to live without any faith, but it is
not for the vast majority. It actually requires a lot of intellectual work
to break free from religion. I think our brains are wired for religion. In
other words, I believe it may be as much an instinct as is hunger or sex.

Religion most likely came about in the evolution of our species because of
the fear of death due to our consciousness. In earlier times death was a
constant companion to man all of his days. You cannot live with the fear of
death (and oblivion) hanging over you every second of your life. You would
be reduced to a trembling mass of quivering flesh. Religion gives us what we
need in order to live.

I fear the Muslims more than I ever did the Communists. They are saturated
with religion and this gives them the kind of strength that we have largely
lost in the West.

Abandon religion at your peril!

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

"Little Meow" wrote in message
...
Edward Dolan wrote in
:
[froups adjusted to where Ed is on topic]

I fear the Muslims more than I ever did the Communists. They are
saturated
with religion and this gives them the kind of strength that we have
largely
lost in the West.

I fear Ed Dolan more than I ever did the Communists. He wants to do
me personal harm:
[...]

How many times do I have to tell you that I don't give a good g.d. about
you.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota