QuiGon

Ah yes, because nothing says freedom and democracy like banning religions...

Thanks you for being a characture of the typical loony liberal that so many in here say doesn't exist. As has been noted in this forum before by individuals far wiser than myself, atheism is a religion who's practitioners want to impose on everyone else.

Pujo

I don't normally agree with Qui Gon, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit to going "damn right" when I read that.

How in the world do you ban people from believing in something while convincing yourself that it's best for a rational society?

Patters

You can't ban religion, but slowly but surely it's fading away. In the old days, everything -- day, night, winter, summer, life, death -- was explained by God. Now, religion occupies mostly a spiritual realm, and let's remember that many right wingers would probably be cannibals if it wasn't for their fear of God. Only their fear of God keeps them somewhat civilized.

3 to be 4

yeah, like that comment wasnt hateful and idiotic.

believe me Patters, i havent met a right winger is remotely interested in eating you.

Patters

Surely, you agree that religious dogma is not what it used to be. Most people believe in a God who shares their views on just about everything. Out of curiosity, do you have any views where you say to yourself, "Darn, in my heart I really believe that such and such is okay, but my religion tells me it's wrong, so I can't believe it."

That's because they fear God!

BradyForPresident

Banning religion is banishing God, banishing goodness. Godlessness needs to be banned.

PF1996

An ignorant intolerant conservative like yourself should be quite aware that democratic society doesn't entail UNLIMITED FREEDOMS. Murder is banned as is CHILD PORNOGRAPHY as are a host of other actions. Of course making murder a crime doesn't stop the occurence of murder nor will banning religion be enough to wipe out the beliefs of the current cult members. However, banning, along with adjusting societal cultural values to emphasize the pure stupidity of organized religion should be enough to remove its current legitimacy and reduce the number of adherents to a point where organized religion wouldn't be a threat to a rational, democratic society. It's not surprising that you would be opposed to such a movement since it would remove the very basis you use for oppressing or attempting to oppress the natural, individual freedoms of others.

Atheism isn't a religion. Believing that the world isn't flat doesn't make one part of a religion and acknowledging the obvious - that organized religions are cults based on a variety of fairytales, passed down through generations -also doesn't make one a member of a religion.

PF1996

Hmmm....when did I say one should "ban beliefs"? Beliefs cannot be "banned". I don't agree with racism or sexism but I wouldn't suggest "banning racist beliefs or sexist beliefs" because it cannot be done. However, I fully support efforts to ban racist actions and sexist actions and I fully support efforts to delegitimize racist and sexist beliefs. This can also be applied to religion. Banning religion would only entail the total removal of religion from the public sphere (i.e. no more silly swearing on the Bible), banning public and organized worship (it could be done in private homes) and delegitimizing organised religion by emphasizing its irrationality and its contradictions. Society can promote values that would delegitimize organized religion and thus ensure that fewer would adopt such irrational beliefs and more importantly, attempt to use such irrational beliefs to infringe on the rights of others. Just as the indication of racist or sexist beliefs is correctly scorned in public (although quite alright in private) so should indications of belief in the teachings of organized religion also be scorned. There should be no legal "confidentiality" attached to communications between a person and a cult leader. Arguments using religion as a basis for PUBLIC POLICY should be dismissed and scorned, just as arguments using racist or sexist beliefs for public policy would be.

It's rather ironic that there's far more rational support for racist and sexist beliefs than there have ever been for organized religion and yet racism and sexism now have little public support or legitimization while many people remain unwilling to acknowledge that organized religion is based on nothing more than a fairytale. Yet, you don't understand how banning public support and legitimization of this fairytale, a fairytale which is used to promote oppression and infringement of individual rights would be good for a rational society? You need more help than I can offer. People like you are the successors of those who suppported the racist beliefs that enabled the institution of slavery in America and the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. Hopefully, history will repeat itself and organized religion will be delegitimized even more than those racist beliefs.

QuiGon

And an ignorant, intolerant loony liberal like you should be quite aware that freedom of religion is one of our most basic, most fundamental freedoms guaranteed to us under the United States Constituion (it's a pretty cool document - your should put away your hate literature and read it sometime).
Well there we have it folks... PF1996 has just compared practicing religion to murder and child pornography.
So you want to guarantee freedom for all by banning religion. Yeah that makes sense

Put away your hate literature and stop being such an intolerant bigot.

QuiGon

Yeah, right, sure... I am sure that if you banned public worship, you would be perfectly content to let people worship in private homes....

We both know that once you got public worship banned, your little gestapo would next be making sure people didn't worship in private either.

Geez, we better throw away the Declaration of Independence and Constitution then... Here's a passage...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Actually, wait... I can see why a liberal like yourself would hate the above... you hate property rights, you hate liberty and you hate the idea that all are equal under the law...