Is religion the root of all evil?
Professor Richard Dawkins06 January 2006 Known as ‘ Darwin’s Rottweiler’, Professor Richard Dawkins relishes controversy. In his new TV series he explains how religion is a form of abuse – and why God is man’s most destructive invention ++ Why do you believe in your God? Because he talks to you inside your head?The Yorkshire Ripper claimed his murders were ordered by JesusImagine, sang John Lennon, a world with no religion. Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch-hunts, no Gunpowder Plot, no Kashmir dispute, no Indian partition, no Israel/Palestine war, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no Northern Ireland “troubles”.
Imagine no Taliban to blow up ancient statues, no public beheadings of blasphemers, no flogging of female skin for the crime of showing an inch of it. Imagine no persecutions of the Jews – no Jews to persecute indeed, for, without religious taboos against marrying out, the Diaspora would long ago have merged into Europe.Hitler invoked “My feelings as a Christian” to justify his anti-Semitism, and he wrote in Mein Kampf: “I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” Nevertheless, most such atrocities are not directly motivated by religion. IRA gunmen didn’t kill Protestants (or vice versa) over disagreements about transubstantiation or such theological niceties. The motive was more likely to be tribal vengeance.
One of “them” killed one of “us”. “They” drove “our” great-grandfathers out of ancestral lands.Grievances are economic and political, not religious; and vendettas stretch “unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me”.
Quoting Exodus reminds me, incidentally, that humanists prefer Gandhi’s version: “An eye for an eye make the whole world blind.” read the article ...
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