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Reply to "Enemies of the Enlightenment"

quote:
You need to accept that religiosity is part and parcel with American culture.


Zip, I acknowledge that religiosity is ingrained in American culture, but I do not approve of much of the religion that influences America, and I want it changed.

Religion is the one major influence upon the human condition that has not changed--and religion prides itself on its steadfast refusal to change. Christian conservatives scorn moral relativism. In their eyes, what was "God's word" in Moses' time is right today.

Religious dogma does not change from within. It changes only when forced by outside influences (maybe the influence of atheist letter writers). If science and a judicious legal system had not usurped ecclesiastical authority, we would still be on a circular domed plain at the center of the universe with heretics burning at the stake and slaves working the fields.

The intransigence of certain of America’s religions has served to perpetuate intolerance--intolerance of gender, sexual preference, other religions’ beliefs, ideas and practices and before civil rights, race.

If religion would only make a concerted effort to improve itself, we might eliminate the ignorance, superstition, bigotry and violence that adversely affects American life. Instead, religious Americans (primarily evangelicals) spin tales, point fingers of condemnation, pass the plate and rarely do anything to improve the quality of life.

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