Blog - Sunday, August 15, 2010 19:22 - 5 Comments

Comment of doom

Running a web site like this does attract the occasional, long winded, rantish comment or email.  This morning I woke to a comment on a post made way back in March 2010 by one “John M”.  At that time I posted about a Hindu priest who cut the heads off his three daughters and sprinkled the blood all over the house.  This clearly is an horrific and despicable act but, as I said at the time, it is unfair to lay the blame squarely at the feet of religion.  With that in mind, John raised a number of counterpoints to the views I expressed at that time.  Let’s have a look:

“How about looking or asking someone who is an expert, instead of assuming and denigrating an entire mostly peaceful religion?”

There are many religious expert all over the world, each using similar evidence, arguments, and logic to arrive a their preconceptions of spiritual beings, reincarnation, divine judges, and eternal torture chambers.  If theology was a valid endeavour we might expect them to reach a consensus on god’s number, nature, and will.

Yet the reality of religion is the exact opposite – the more “experts” examining the “evidence” the more divisions, denominations, and schisms occur.  Christians are divided into Catholic, Prodestant, Baptist, Pentecostal, and more.  Islam falls into Sunni, Shi’a, Sufism, Ahmadiyya, and others.  Who knows how many deities Hinduism have fractured into over the centuries, but given the nature of polytheism this is not a serious problem.

Which of these religious experts should I consult when one of their members barbarically hacks the heads off their sons and daughters?  Strangely I would say none, since almost without exception they would all distance themselves from such atrocities and deploying religions long standing friend – the no true Scotsman fallacy. (more…)