The current local issues (that is, in the USA) that are much more serious than people wanting to pray before a board meeting, or creationists trying to add literalism into text books are:

Poverty
Enormous wealth disparity
The national deficit
Military involvement in foreign countries.
Pollution (although we are getting better)
Racism.

Globally it's abject poverty, wealth disparity, and threats of war and violence to people entirely motivated by power.

You agree that religion should be the focus of an eradication campaign?
That that is what should be denounced first?

You've got a myopic view of the world, youkrst.

What now? You're going to quote me a few old testament bible verses to prove it's religion that's mostly to blame for all the conflict in the world?

ant wrote:it's not religion that should be denounced, it's OPPRESSION of any kind that should be denounced.

i hereby denounce oppression, and find much of literalist religion oppressive and so i hereby denounce it.

ant wrote:Putting religion on trial and not atheism in these situations is just exposing the religious bigotry that has effectively been brainwashed into the heads of ...

i'm quite happy to put any idea on trial !

which particular idea would you like to try?

i thought you would have figured it out by now, i'm not an atheist.

i'm not a theist either

Oh wow. This is shocking.

You don't really know what you are, huh?

Are you an expert in naive literalism?
That's not saying much and is certainly how you present yourself.

and you're good with song lyrics.

ant wrote:You agree that religion should be the focus of an eradication campaign?

no, i don't agree.

ant wrote:That that is what should be denounced first?

no, but there are specific ideas, doctrines, concepts etc found in religion that i would consider contrary to maximum fun.

ant wrote:You've got a myopic view of the world, youkrst.

i think you might be one i could hand my "crown of myopia" to at times.

ant wrote:What now? You're going to quote me a few old testament bible verses to prove it's religion that's mostly to blame for all the conflict in the world?

no, i think religion like all thinking needs to be examined in detail.

bad action is the logical offspring of bad thinking, religious or otherwise.

"Bad thinking" is a large part of "new" atheism.

The resurrection of The Conflict Thesis by celebrity atheists is one example.

Oh wow. This is shocking.

You don't really know what you are, huh?

no ant, you really don't know what i am, it's not so shocking

what about you ant?

are you a theist? an atheist? a prickly pear?

ant wrote:That's not saying much and is certainly how you present yourself.

or perhaps it's all you were able to see. perhaps others saw more, or less.

at the moment i feel like i'm having a conversation with a cantankerous old square.

ant wrote:Yeah, genius.
The deadly issue with history's most notorious self proclaimed atheistic tyrants was by sheer coincidence (which is actually what you're implicitly advancing here) they so happened to single out believers to murder and oppress by the millions.

This is a strong case for a brand of atheism that insists they can not be held morally accountable for any actions because of their disbelief in Thor, Zeus, and teapots.

Talk about "bad thinking." Yet another strawman. Aren't you embarrassed by continuing to post these and being called out? Who is arguing that someone can't be held morally accountable because of disbelief?

If religion also is to be credited (as Dexter said himself) for the good that it motivates, then it's not religion that should be denounced, it's OPPRESSION of any kind that should be denounced. The bone being picked here is against religion. F**ing DUH!

Is religious belief relevant to the violence and oppression in the Middle East or not? Or is it just power politics? Try to give a straight answer.

The resurrection of The Conflict Thesis by celebrity atheists is one example.

then by all means let us show them how wrong they are to resurrect The Conflict Thesis.

Dexter wrote:

"Is religious belief relevant to the violence and oppression in the Middle East or not? Or is it just power politics? Try to give a straight answer."

I already acknowledged religion as being one source of conflict in certain geographical locations, Dexter.
My point was in comparison to global conflicts not having anything to do with religion, religious conflict is nearly dwarfed by the comparison. You get that, right?

The Middle East Conflict as in the jewish / Palestinian conflict?
I'd venute a wild guess and say you and I probably are on the same side on this issue.
But is that conflict entirely motivated by religious differences?
Whats your answer to that question?

The phrase "so much conflict" does not imply "the main cause of conflict".

The Israel/Palestine conflict is partly motivated by religion; I doubt anyone claims it is entirely motivated by religious differences. In other parts of the middle east, the sectarian violence in Iraq rages on. In many other areas there is Boko Haram in Nigeria, train station bombings in London, WTC in NYC, the Taliban, Uighur attacks in China, etc.

Asking why religion causes so much conflict is a fair question.

Does anyone want to do the chat thing tonight? 10 p.m. EST CNN