Let's break down the statement, shall we? Religion itself is not only evil, but the most evil and destructive thing man ever invented. If this is in fact the case, then everyone who adheres to religion is evil. You can't very well hold an evil belief as a core tenet and not be an evil person right? Yet evil has not only been committed in the name of religion, but also in the name of opposing religion as well as entirely independent of religion and I'm sure even the most staunch gnostic atheist can name a handful of people who hold religious beliefs who they would not consider to be evil people. Therefore calling religion inherently evil is blatantly wrong and calling it the most evil and destructive thing ever invented even moreso. To say so reduces the speaker to just another blip in the sea of feuding sectarian viewpoints indistinguishable from the Bible, or Koran, or Torah thumping fundamentalists they claim to be against.
A Matter of Faith
Started By
*Anastasia
, Sep 23 2016 11:38 AM
34 replies to this topic
#21
Posted 25 September 2016 - 09:59 PM
#22
Posted 25 September 2016 - 10:20 PM
The problem* I see with that argument, though, is that if you must consider every constituent part of something evil to be evil as well, then nothing can rightly be described as evil. I think the Holocaust was evil; does that mean I have to think every soldier who so much as caught a glimpse of a concentration camp was evil? Because I don't. In fact, I think war is, on the whole, evil, that killing other human beings over the truly minor things we wage wars over is evil. Must I then also consider every soldier evil? Must I then consider everything accomplished by wars of aggression evil as well? Because boy oh boy, if we're going to discuss unnecessary wars waged for truly trivial things, there's this little doozy that started as a tax revolt in 1775 that had some pretty wide-ranging effects which I apparently must consider evil solely because I consider warfare itself evil.
And on the issue of taxes, is every Sudanese citizen evil for paying taxes that funded the genocide in Darfur? Is every American taxpayer evil for funding the murder of Iraqis, Afghanis, Yemenis, Libyans, Palestinians?
So no, I don't think one has to consider every religious person evil to consider religion evil, and I can't rightfully say I ascribe that logic any merit. One needn't blame the raindrop for the flood.
*It's not actually a problem at all if your argument is, in fact, that nothing at all should rightly be described as evil, which might be a valid argument, but I put that aside as that didn't seem to be what you were arguing.
And on the issue of taxes, is every Sudanese citizen evil for paying taxes that funded the genocide in Darfur? Is every American taxpayer evil for funding the murder of Iraqis, Afghanis, Yemenis, Libyans, Palestinians?
So no, I don't think one has to consider every religious person evil to consider religion evil, and I can't rightfully say I ascribe that logic any merit. One needn't blame the raindrop for the flood.
*It's not actually a problem at all if your argument is, in fact, that nothing at all should rightly be described as evil, which might be a valid argument, but I put that aside as that didn't seem to be what you were arguing.