Americans and Religion

[kandrathe]

I was not pointing at single statements made by scientists or relugious people.
Generally speaking the aim of science is to find and investigate new phenomena or simpler, new ways of doing things better, cleaner, cheaper etc.
Religion is only taking steps back. Religion has (despite the majority of the world is still religious) to defend itsself continously, because most claims (apart from the not provable or unprovable fact of a presence of God) have been proven to be absolute jibberish. Religion (so not the possible presence of a God) has for this reason continued to change the definition of what is a God and what does he do or know or influence.

You can see this in the most progressive countries. There is a lot more possibility for debate.
In the most conservative countries (nowadays often muslim countries, but I don't want to single out this particular religion in any way) like Iran, Afghanistan etc. it is still widespread common knowledge that you should wear a Burqa (as female) because that is how religion wants it. (in one way comparable with the fact that God says that you should go to church). It is not for nothing that these silly things are abandoned by progressive christians or muslims.

But, just like science, the press zeroes in on the crack pots. The ones who are meaningfully making a difference hardly get noticed. And, I disagree with the idea that "Religion is only taking steps back." This is your own bias showing. "Religion" has been a consistent and universal human pilosophical pursuit for all recorded history (10-15 thousand years). You could just as easily say "Aesthetics is holding us back" Damn the pursuit of beauty. There are many things that are taking us steps back, and you don't need religion as your whipping boy. Fundamental Islam seems to be your focus, but again that extreme minority is getting all the press. I don't believe Stalin was a religious man, nor Hitler, nor was religious zeal used (except to kill them e.g. the Jews) in any other the recent genocide. Perhaps Darfur is an example of Islamicists persecuting Christians. In fact, if you add up the atheist Stalin and Pol Pots purges in the name of progress, then atheists have been doing most of the killing this last century. Fascists take a close 2nd place.

You are also confusing progressive with progress, at least positive progress. We are entering into a phase (at least in this country) where tolerance of every deviance is mandated, meaning that there is no truth and those who stand for a moral truth are ridiculed or jailed. We cannot debate what is right or wrong anymore, since everything is relative and true to each individual. And in a way, I can sympathize with the islamofacist terrorists since I don't want a Justin Timberlake, Britany Spears, Christina Aguilera, Madonna world either. I'm just not willing to asuage my outrage by bombing innocents. So instead I'd rather put my energies into a rational and reasonable moral compromise between Kabul, or Provo, Utah and the Las Vegas Strip, or Reguliersdwarsstraat, Amsterdam. Some people need to lighten up a little, and others need to stop wagging their T and A's around so much. Get out of the Burqa yes, but not into a thong bikini maybe.