Believing in anything may be both like and unlike believing in fairies.
Religious people have opposed science. They’ve also practiced science.
People do abuse children in the name of religion. They also treat them well in the name of religion.
So there seems to be some truth in those propositions and some falsity.
The issues aren’t as black and white as you made them out to be. You seem to want to make things simpler than they are.
Appealing to authority helps you deny the ambiguity, complexity and difficulties of life. You don’t have to think for yourself. Your superiors spoon feed you the answers.
That’s not the Richard Dawkins view. He doesn’t take a nuanced position towards religion.
His view is religion = bad. He is 100% black and white.
That’s why he’s so juvenile.
I deal with the ambiguity, complexity and difficulties of life everyday. I just have a doctrine I follow that I didn’t make up myself, unlike the atheists, who make up their own every day.
There’s truth in what you say about Dawkins. But, your view is black and white, my way or the highway, and un-nuanced too. You seem to be dealing with the ambiguity, complexity, and difficulties of life by rigid mindless adherence to an external authority that tells you what to think and what to do. How is it working for you?
“I just have a doctrine I follow that I didn’t make up myself, unlike the atheists, who make up their own every day.”
R u suggesting or implying that anyone who follows a doctrine they made up themselves, would be wrong? If so, what do you say about those writers of the old testament who in the very act of writing the material had to make it up.
On the other hand, you might be saying there was some special revelatory nature to the discovery of the truth - that certain people at certain times and places literally established communications with a divine being, and what they dictate as interpreters is the undisputed truth.
But, if that’s the case, you’ve also got several other folks claiming the authority of having true revelatory knowledge of God, and according to them, God’s tellin 'em something different.
Yeah run along.
You should be able to find a forum with someone who can massage your delusions, and not challenge you.
Afterall you are not really interested in debate, you only want to find your own weird ideas confirmed.
Since you have to denigrate Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre, in order to feel good about your chosen path, I doubt that the way you’re going is as great as you say.
The my way or the highway attitude of your thinking blinds you to the significance of thinkers who are not in lockstep with you. It makes it difficult for you to carry on dialogue without becoming harsh and judgmental.
I can’t help but wonder what effect that attitude has on your personal life. How could that be “great”?
“Nausea”
“No Exit”
“Ecce Homo” a few times.
“The Gay Science”
“The Antichrist”
About half of “Thus Spake Zarathustra”
As well as 4 biographies of Nietszche and all of his letters a few times. (That’s how I know how self absorbed Nietszche was.)
Jesus, who you claim allegiance to, taught “judge not lest ye be judged.” Do you really suppose that you’re able to sum up and judge the lives of these men who contributed so much to philosophy? Isn’t the Christian thing to evaluate their philosophies and leave the ultimate judgment of the men themselves to God?