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Ban Religion Now
April 9th, 2007 at 01:31
I’ve recently finished reading Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, and as a result, I’ve unquestionably accepted everything that it has said and become a militant atheist.
The God Delusion was something of a revelation to me. It’s provided me with a framework for belief and morals- if there were a Richard Dawkins fan club that I could attend, say, every Sunday, and celebrate his creation with other Dawkins fans, it would be most excellent.
After reading the book, I think it’s made me slightly more hostile towards people with different beliefs to my own- I have nothing but contempt for people who don’t believe the word of Richard Dawkins, or the unbelievers, as you could call them.
One of Dawkins’ main criticisms of religion (aside from “religion is rubbish and wrong”) is that kids are raised into being religious zealots, giving them no choice in what to belief- and Dicky Dawkins moans that he thinks labelling a child “a Christian child” or “a Muslim child” is as absurd as labelling them “a Conservative Child” or “a Labour child”. I quite agree, and this is why I think they should ban religion for under 18s.
Think about it – a child raised free from corrupting influences, and then they can make an informed decision about whether to believe fairy tales or rational thought as a responsible adult.
As well as the positive societal implications, the amusing side effect to this would be religion bizarrely becoming something that is cool in the eyes of young people. Everyone knows that smoking makes you look really cool and wins you loads of friends- this is especially true if you’re not old enough to buy cigarettes. Presumably if religion were also outlawed for kids, there’d be choirboys at the back of the school field catching a quick prayer before the teachers see, and on their way home they’d be getting the tallest member of their gang to put on a deep voice and try and buy a Bible from behind the counter in Waterstones.
Thinking about it, why don’t they just ban religion entirely? Sure, this might be a little bit draconian, but it would be for the greater good – think about all of the old churches that could be converted into trendy apartments or redeveloped by ageing middle class couples with too much disposable income and a desire to appear on Grand Designs. Any churches that did want to carry on would have to go underground, and it’d be a bit like prohibition in America in the early 20th century, with churches living in the basements of buildings, with a secret knock, passwords in order to gain entry, and singing gangster children.
And isn’t massive societal upheaval worth it if it means we can spread the word of Dawkins?
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