"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth."
2007-08-01 06:58:24 · 28 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Sounds like very wise words.
Check out the new book called God is Not Great...great book.
2007-08-01 07:03:15 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This person is thinking that religion doesn't have those attributes because they have met people who don't live up to their religious standards.
All religions uphold the highest standard of courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth.
It's the people who don't live up to those standards that give the term "religion," a sour taste in people's mouths - so to speak.
2007-08-01 07:09:28 · answer #2 · answered by Querida 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That would be valid only if all who were devout in the practice of their religion were cowardly, muddled, dishonest, unfair, and haters of truth.
We hear about the few that are all of these things, because they are unusual and bring harm to others (Eric Rudolph, the daily suicide car bomber, Fred Phelps). But the vast majority of the those that practice their religion are not wild-eyed zealots, and don't fit this description.
The idea that you can't be an honest, courageous, intelligent, compassionate, truth seeking person of faith is, well, narrow minded.
2007-08-01 07:20:53 · answer #3 · answered by jehen 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
my religion teaches courage, clear thinking , honesty, fairness,and love of the truth, because it teaches us as human to want to know more and to enlighten myself with things i don't know. not all religions but for the most part teach to just trust a god and that he is the only answer you need
2007-08-01 07:05:54 · answer #4 · answered by Laughing Man 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mencken tended to be a bit dramatic. Even though I am an atheist, I believe he is exaggerating the negativity. I know plenty of courageous & honest religious people - and so did he.
However, I do believe that the "love of truth" is greater in the skeptic than in those who cannot countenance any contradiction to their faith.
2007-08-01 07:28:11 · answer #5 · answered by JAT 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I like this one too
The Fact of evolution is the backbone of biology and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on unproven theory. Is it then a science or a faith? Belief in the theory of evolution is thus exactly parallel to belief in special creation. Both are concepts which the believers know to be true, but neither, up to the present, has been capable of proof.” L.H. Matthews,
2007-08-01 07:02:58 · answer #6 · answered by J 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I happen to hold all those things in veneration, and I also happen to be religious.
2007-08-01 07:05:48 · answer #7 · answered by xx. 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that scapegoats are dangerous, whether they are motivated by religion, or the ideologies of secular modernity.
2007-08-01 07:02:30 · answer #8 · answered by Timaeus 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Right on the money!
Religion has nothing to do with God.
2007-08-01 07:03:38 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think you have a right to feel anyway you want to. After all, this is America. God did give us free will. The right to go to Hell or Heaven. Your choice.
2007-08-01 07:02:50 · answer #10 · answered by Brenda M 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋