A couple of days ago I was reading an article in which the manifestations of – especially fundamentalist – religion were compared to psychosis, the hearing of voices, being dictated to by a higher external source, and cultivating an extreme us-and-them attitude. As much I really don’t care what people think or believe in, as at the heart of all religions is a compassion and respect for each other, a morality that continues to exist in the foundations of secular contemporary societies, I also would really like to live in a world in which atheism and a large scepticism and mistrust for superstition was the accepted norm.
Actually, I’m very anti-religion and really cannot comprehend how rational, intelligent, educated people can be awash in dogmatic supernatural personality cults, so reading Richard Dawkins annihilating faith and dogma from a scientific perspective was one of the pleasures of breakfast today, and Ethan Zuckerman at …My heart’s in Accra is my blog of the moment.
“Faith can sometimes be caught like a virus from a charismatic preacher or a book,” Dawkins tells us. But it’s usually hereditary. Children always seem to adopt the same religion as their parents. Somehow they always believe that it’s the right one. This is a result, Dawkins believes, of indoctrinated as children.
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The arrogance of faith, Dawkins argues, is that people argue, “I know the truth and nothing will change my mind.” Or “my holy book”, “my priest” or “my inner voice” tells the truth and there’s no need to look further. Science, Dawkins argues, is filled with doubt and skepticism, while faith is exactly the opposite.
