I took a Religion and Violence course during the last semester of my Master's degree. As a matter of fact, I'm going to be published in an upcoming book edited by Charles Bellinger regarding religion and violence. I found this competition regarding advertisements on banning all religion really hilarious and really thoughtful.
This Australian program is called The Gruen Transfer, and the segment is called "The Pitch." I think I might be interested in seeing some of the other pitches, such as bringing back child labor, invading New Zealand, and euthanizing everyone over eighty.
I thought that was a funny clip. I reckon I would like that show. Still, the basic argument behind both, although they were not intended as serious, is a straw man type argument, taken to the nth degree. What don't we like about history? What don't we like about everything? Blame it on religion. I rather think you could make the exact same commercials, substitute religion for "civilization" or "land ownership" or "opinions" or "diversity" and it would work exactly the same. Religion as a catch-all concept for every single and different thought that people throughout history have had about god/eternity/worldviews/rules/nature/paranormal/and the unexplained is a quite convenient and misleading. "Nazi Ghost hunters" and a "self-sacrificing social justice reformer for God" are two quite differnt things, but could both fall under the "religion category."
ReplyDeleteI know it's kind of lame to appeal to South Park, but there was the episode where they showed what would happen if we banished religion from the world. The atheists would battle for what the proper name is that all atheists should call themselves. Of course, by most standards, that would be defined as a religion, a religion of atheists. I think the idea is that we scapegoat religion enough that people won't be prepared to face the fact that violence still exists in a world without religion.
ReplyDeleteyeah. Those are kindof my thoughts as well. I don't really fault those who think religion is the big bad of the earth's narrative, as they likely were convinced of this by some charismatic chap, the same way some fundamentalist was. But I guess that whatever your stance is, if it doesn't make you more kind, understanding, and willing to see through another person's eyes, it probably isn't worth having, true or false.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, if there ends up being no God, or anything else beyond this life, then EVERY last damn thing we do is a lie, is worthless, and ultimately meaningless. That goes for every thing that an athiest thinks is "true" or important as well. If God is made up, so be it, because at that point I can assert God is the truth, and be just as right as those who assert that God doesn't exist. As our words mean absolutely dick. Like Mel said in Signs, you either believe in God or you don't.