Religion and New Speak

[Original Poster]

There seems to be some question today whether the Koran preaches peace or violence. In my own opinion, when it tells you to leave the infidels and false believers for god to sort out, that's sounds like a pretty peaceful suggestion. But what the book says is irrelevant because a corruption of values has occurred across the board. Some atheists believe if people can think rationally they won't act out of fear or superstition but I think that's putting the cart before the horse. One must first face fear of the unknown and uncertain before they can begin to exercise reason. In the meantime, whatever the book says, their fear is a weakness that leaves their values corruptible into anything. Take the bible, it preaches not just to feed and help the poor, it tells you that the key to happiness is, in part, to BE poor. The followers are instead taught to despise and dehumanize the poor, and blame them for all their problems and compete with their neighbors for scarce resources. Their book says compassion clearly as the morning sun and they are taught to hate, to torture and enslave any who threaten their terrorarchy in the name of--I won't even bastardize the symbol--and have the gall to say the Muslim daesh are just following an evil book. Christian extremism has systematized its violence into a monolithic wave of terror and destruction sweeping across the planet, threatening our entire ecosphere by throwing us into the brink of irreversible climate change. Muslim extremism is essentially a loose and heavily fractured collective of cult leaders sweeping up the survivors of this violence and exploiting the fear this terror caused them. It's important to remember that even atheists living in western society profit as a whole from the Christian Terrorarchy. Collectively speaking, the silence and deafness on behalf of the global community is the cruelest and most violent action of all. Every major dogmatic text I've read has at least said that much.

[Occipitalred]

People don't have religion because they are scared of death. They have religion because it is intuitive for them. And we all do use faith, all of us. We all make leaps of faith, because knowing everything for sure is not possible. Faith can be mixed with doubt as I've read someone say. Extremism is a problem because they think it's a fact and they are not open to their own doubts. We will not fix the acts of terrorism and other religion extremism by abolishing religion (that will only add oil to the problem, making religious people defensive and closed-minded). Instead, we must raise awareness about the healthy mixture of faith and doubt: that is, "I believe this but I realize it might not be true. I continue to believe this because it does me good. Other people might have other ways to see this that are just as practical and moral. Who knows. We are in a maze and to get out, we must choose a path, right or left, both might be as wrong, but our courage to keep going, knowing that it might be the wrong path is all that matters"

[Original Poster]

I never mentioned fear of death, I'm speaking of fear of uncertainty. This fear creates extremism both stunting the rational brain and the creative brain. Without the rational mind, we cannot doubt. Without the creative mind, we cannot hope. Fear of death and loss certainly inspires Muslims to fall into extremism and cognitive dissonance regarding the teachings of their religion, but Christians following the terrorarchy appear to have a different fear entirely being manipulated, some sort of identity crisis and uncertainty regarding technology and the future. Reducing cognitive dissonance doesn't happen through pointing it out, it happens through reducing the fear.

[Occipitalred]

Some atheists believe if people can think rationally they won't act out of fear or superstition but I think that's putting the cart before the horse. One must first face fear of the unknown and uncertain before they can begin to exercise reason. Okay, I think I see what you mean now, you're saying that rather than trying to develop the sense of logic of the religious population in order to reduce their fear of the uncertain, the religious population must address their fear of the uncertain to be able to use logic and to hope. And the consequence of not dealing with fear of the uncertain is that it corrupts the religious' person's view of the holy book. The book says love, they hear hate. Do I understand it right now? If that's what you mean, I think I do agree. As long as someone is scared of the uncertain, of what they don't know, they won't want to go explore outside, see the other possibilities of truth, and they won't use logic or creativity to find truth, instead, they will only try to reinforce what they think they know. So, the goal is to raise awareness of that fear of the uncertainty and become more comfortable with it as a community? (with the intention of both making people's religious practice more genuine and our society more secular?)

[Original Poster]

Okay, I think I see what you mean now, you're saying that rather than trying to develop the sense of logic of the religious population in order to reduce their fear of the uncertain, the religious population must address their fear of the uncertain to be able to use logic and to hope. And the consequence of not dealing with fear of the uncertain is that it corrupts the religious' person's view of the holy book. The book says love, they hear hate. Do I understand it right now? If that's what you mean, I think I do agree. As long as someone is scared of the uncertain, of what they don't know, they won't want to go explore outside, see the other possibilities of truth, and they won't use logic or creativity to find truth, instead, they will only try to reinforce what they think they know. So, the goal is to raise awareness of that fear of the uncertainty and become more comfortable with it as a community? (with the intention of both making people's religious practice more genuine and our society more secular?) Precisely, secularize through love rather than assume we can create peace by targeting the religion. Because the major religious organizations have succumbed to fear, the principles or standards they believe make religion necessary have been circumvented. Rational thinking atheists and secularists are therefore more capable of loving thy neighbor and following other basic principles. If they don't take their opportunity to see the truth through the madness and adhere to a higher value then they forsake the evolutionary anomaly that breathes that awareness through their skull in the first place. It is still inherently irrational to think being non-religious is enough to bear witness to the atrocities committed by extremists and do nothing. The fearful have their brains hijacked by a constant it's more important to reduce this hijacking on the brain than it is to be right about things like god and climate change because all these things have been collectively bundled in a mess of new speak that can only remain functional so long as real or imaginary fear continues to repress people. If you're a rational person, how are you using it?

[Occipitalred]

If you're a rational person, how are you using it? Using what?