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Recent Comments"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
— Thomas Jefferson
Check this out, courtesy of my friend Sal's blog.
Or you can watch it here if the embedded video doesn't work for you.
And the quote above is from the sidebar of Nobody's Business which, in a fit of wonderful synchronicity, had this alarming report about extremist beliefs today.
I've got a great idea! How about we just start questioning what we hear from, oh, just about anybody in the so-called "positions of authority?" Politicians, main stream media folk, priests, pastors and other such shamans. Pretty much everybody.
Instead, let's maybe think for ourselves or take advantage of these here intartubes and talk to other people, all over the world, and ask them what's actually going on?
I'm just sayin'...
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Everyone is capable of rational thought. If that mechanism was always active, we wouldn't need laws, much less police or military.
You know how "hypnotism" works, right? Some people are more open than others to being told what to do, and if you speak with confidence and authority in your voice, they will do whatever you tell them. I call it the Sheeple Factor.
This is why organized religion is dangerous. Faith tends to bypass rational thinking as it is, but then some authority figure with an agenda steps up an tells his followers what to do, using a firm, confident tone of voice. Politicians use that trick all the time to get votes. Salesmen use it to sell expensive crap to folks who can't afford it. But with the force of faith to back it up - people get killed and stuff blows up.
Jefferson was a genius, but he was also an idealist. He believed that rational thought would ultimately prevail, and that Mankind was, at the heart, good natured.
For the most part he was right, I think. But, where there is power, there are people willing to use it for their own benefit. The Sheeple Factor is a form of power. It has been abused historically many times, and millions have died because of it.
This is why I teach atheism.
Dez (URL) - Friday, April 04, 2008 - 06:23