Quote Originally Posted by thir View Post
If you mean me, I did not call anyone 'stupid', I called them 'almost insane'.
Usually she's addressing me with this kind of statement. And that's probably because I feel that anyone who BLINDLY follows a religious leader is, indeed, stupid. Those who learn about their religion, who actually think about (a rarity in my experience) might be considered gullible, perhaps, but not necessarily stupid.


As for "I can see why some people think that religion is a real danger and a curse" that should have been "dogmatic, institutionalized religion." I was too shaken to think straight but by all gods large and small, I stand by that!
A religion is, by definition, institutionalized. Faith does not have to be either religious or dogmatic.

Neither church has even apologized for this inhuman behaviour.
Just give them a couple of hundred years. They'll get around to it. (see: Galileo)

No religion, no government, no political faction has the right to tell anyone what to think, or do.
And yet this is exactly what religious organizations are designed to do! Political organizations as well. Governments tend to follow the dictates of whichever political organization is in control at the time.

As for fire of intolerance, that has always seemed to me to come from said dogmatic religions. Everybody else simply discuss, they do not try to make all other people abide by their ideas.
Statistics seem to indicate that, in the US, the more dogmatic religions are losing young members in record numbers. It appears to me that, as those young people leave, the remnants cling ever more tightly to their archaic beliefs, further driving the young away, rather than trying to adjust to reality and at least attempt to keep the younger people aboard. And they quickly become even more demanding and intolerant of those who do not follow their particular superstition.