Religion is 'the new social evil' - Times Literary Supplement - The Diigo Meta page

• 22 Apr 08
  

  loki moore

  religion atheism social society

• 21 Apr 08
  

  Sam Schuman

  religion

• 

  atheism religion society uk news

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  ken .

  Well, of course, noone reads the reports (it's a PDF, ugh). Joe reader comments "It's interesting that misrepresentation of facts and statistics by the media was considered a worse social evil than religion" - a social technlogy, evil as false-dilemma...

  belief control fear group logic media power psychology religion social technology trust uk

• 

  Tom

  An unsophisticated analysis that reflects public opinion. There is a failure to acknowledge that subjectivism is a more serious threat to tolerance than is religion. If there is no objective standard ("my opinion is as good as yours"), then there is no reason (beyond civility) not to force one's moral opinions on others.

  moral realism ethics religion society tolerance subjectivism

  • A CHARITY set up by an ardent Christian to fight slavery and the opium trade has identified a new social evil of the 21st century - religion.
  • Pollsters asked 3,500 people what they considered to be the worst blights on modern society, updating a list drawn up by Rowntree, a Quaker, 104 years ago.
  • The researchers found that the “dominant opinion” was that religion was a “social evil”.

  •  Many participants said religion divided society, fuelled intolerance and spawned “irrational” educational and other policies. 

     One said: “Faith in supernatural phenomena inspires hatred and prejudice throughout the world, and is commonly used as justification for persecution of women, gays and people who do not have faith.”

  •  The findings contrast with Rowntree’s “scourges of humanity”, which included poverty, war, slavery, intemperance, the opium trade, impurity and gambling. 

     Poverty and drugs remain, but are joined by issues such as family breakdown, young people’s behaviour and fears over immigration.

  • Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said he was “extremely pleased”. 

     “Britain has had it with religion,” he said.
  • If one is tolerant and accepting, seeking truth, then one looses one's religion.
  • in my part of the world the "spoiled, consumerist, every-person-for-themselves types that typefy our society" are usually religious people dealing with strangers outside of church.

  6 more annotations...

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